Explore Ausable Chasm in the Adirondacks

This July, my boys and I were lucky enough to visit Ausable Chasm, often called the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks. The folks at Ausable Chasm were kind enough to give us admission and a chance to float down the river that has created this visual marvel.

If you do one thing while you’re at the Ausable Chasm, it’s the self-guided walking tours. There are several trails you can follow and even toddlers can navigate them.

Before you even get to the trails, however, you walk across a bridge and get to look back on the falls. Quite spectacular!

We walked the Inner Sanctum Trail right to our rafting experience and learned about the chasm along the way. The trail is easy to walk but also a lot of fun. It runs along a ridge in the chasm (don’t worry, there are railings to keep kids from wandering) and has some metal walkways… which my boys thought were pretty cool.

 

Along the way, we couldn’t help but notice the adventure tour! Someone was working their way across on a suspension bridge. While I longingly looked on, my boys asked if they could do that, too. But we’ll have to wait until our youngest one turns eight. (Sigh.) Trust me, the summer he hits eight, we are SO there.

Ausable Chasm Views

For the scenic float tour, you take a raft about halfway through the chasm. (Kids have to be at least 30 pounds.) The ride was very mild… to the point that the foreign tourists we were paired with never even put their cameras away. It truly is family friendly.

It was quite beautiful. And you definitely get a different sense of the chasm when you’re on the river looking up walls of rock that are more than 100 feet high. Along the way, our guide told us all about what we were seeing and really gave me an additional appreciation for this landmark.

Ausable Chasm White Water Rafting
That’s me looking up at the camera with my boys who are checking out the brief rapids.

I should mention, there are also two other trails along the Ausable Chasm, one that winds along the top of the chasm (the most mild trail) and one that goes farther into the forest for some more serious hiking. When you get to the end of the trail (or raft ride) you can take a trolly back to the main entrance, but we chose to hoof it back on the easy trail and enjoy the scenery for just a little bit longer.

Some additional activities which sound really cool include:

I could definitely see ourselves coming back to the Ausable Chasm to enjoy the other activities it has to offer.

5 Comments

    1. Oh please do. It really is a lovely hike, quite beautiful and you get to learn some cool facts about how it was formed.

  1. HI JENNY,

    My name is Tom Semeraro and I am the on site photographer with Ausable Chasm. It has come to our attention that you have a photo on your blog site which does not display the correct copyright information. It credits your site as the creator of the content. We understand that you may have purchased a souvenir photo (thank you) but, the copyright and actual ownership of the image belongs to:www.semerarophotography.com DBA as CHASM PHOTO. Here is the link to the photo:https://mommyevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Ausable-Chasm-White-Water-Rafting.jpg

    We would appreciate you taking the time to change the copyright info. to: http://www.semerarophotography.com
    Thank you for visiting us and if you have questions regarding this matter you can reach me personally.
    Happy Holidays.
    Sincerely,
    Tom Semeraro

    1. Hi Jenny,

      Happy New Year. I’m just checking in to see if you had taken care of the copyright information on the Ausable Chasm raft photo. Our general manager (Tim) informed me that you contacted him to certify that I do hold the copyright on the image. I hope this is not a bother to you and that you understand that, in this day and age we (photographers) have to protect our creative content. Please contact me directly if you have any questions: tom@semerarophotography.com or 518-593-0985.
      PS. I know that Semeraro Photography is a long copyright tag so you can use Chasm Photo instead. Both entities point back to me as creator of content.
      Sincerely,
      Tom S.

      1. He did inform you hold the copyright. When I did purchase the photo, I did ask if I needed to make any special marks on the photo and was told by your employee that I didn’t. So you should be sure your folks understand and answer questions properly.

        At this point, I have no idea where the digital copy of this photo is. It’s common for blogs to watermark with their blog name so people know where to go to read the article. At this point, I’m happy to put right below it your photo credit and a link back to your site or I can remove the digital copy.

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