Indian Head

This past weekend I convinced my parents to hike Indian Head with me. Indian Head is located in the Adirondack mountains in Keene Valley, NY. It is by far one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done and it has been on my list for so long it was a dream to hike this trail.

First and foremost, you need reservations for this hike! You will not be able to hike this trail without them. Reservations can be made at https://www.hikeamr.org/ and you will need to create an account. Creating an account is free and reservations will be under the “New Parking Reservation”. You will get a list of days and times and I believe you can book up to 2 weeks in advance. Making a reservation is also free. If the day and times are available you will see green boxes by those times. Click on the green box and you will need to select the number of people in your party, your name and the names of the people hiking with you and the trail you plan on hiking. If you don’t see the day/time you want available, keep checking back periodically as cancellations can happen.

This is the address to the parking lot: 24 Ausable Rd, Keene Valley, NY 12943 . The HikeAMR website also has the coordinates to the parking lot / trailhead as well.

When you first pull into the area for parking there is a stand with an attendant checking people in and then lets you park your car. Once parked, the dirt road by the parking lot entrance is the start of the hike. About a half mile up the dirt road there is a cute golf resort / community that gave me summer camp vibes with all the cute little cabins.

Following the signs for Lake Road there is another check point where a park ranger was waiting to check people in again. There was also a sign in book to put your name, number in your party, start time, and trails hiking. After checking in, we continued straight on Lake Road where there was a big AMR gate to walk around.

I downloaded the AllTrails map of this trail and I was really glad I did because once I walked around the gate I lost cell service.

There are different options to go up to the overlook. You can follow Lake Road most of the way to the top. It is the fastest and most direct route. Don’t get me wrong, you will still have to hike through the woods to get up to the top, but it’s not as rigorous as the other trails. The next option is veering off Lake Road to the left to take the Gillbrook Trail, which is what we did. It was a beautiful hike through the forest but it was pretty tough. It had rained all night so the ground was wet and slippery.

More toward the top when we were nearing the overlook, it got pretty steep at points. There was tree roots and rocks and stairs/ladder to climb. This was the only point I got a little nervous. I am afraid of heights and the tree tops were nearing eye level and looking down the stairs and roots I just climbed gave me goosebumps because it was pretty high up.

For as crowded as the parking lot was there were not many people around. There was a bunch of people coming down Lake Road while we were walking up, but once we went off onto the Gillbrook Trail, there were no other people around until nearing the peak. We met another group of people at an intersecting trail and both my group and their group were so happy to see other people.

At one point, after the steep climbing, we came to a little clearing in the trees and both my parents asked “Is this is? It looked different in the pictures.” I laughed and said no and we continued on. All of our legs were getting tired at this point (we were about 5 miles in). When I did the Savage Race back in August, there was a group running near me that mentioned they brought mustard packets to help with leg cramps. I had never heard of that before so after the race I looked it up and it is a real thing! It has to be yellow mustard though. I didn’t bring any mustard packets with me and I didn’t even think about it until we were hiking. Might be a good thing to have in a first aid kit though!

There was a smaller overlook that was more tree covered and it gave a small taste of what we would see at the actual overlook. This small view was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to see the whole view. Once we got to the big overlook it was all worth it. You can’t beat views like this. It was absolutely incredible.

It started sprinkling while we were sitting up there and it was significantly colder, but it makes sense since it’s in the mountains. We only spent about 30 minutes at the top. We sat and had lunch. My dad made homemade pizza the night before we packed as a lunch.

Making our way back down there were some more stairs, not as steep as the stairs coming up, but they were slippery. There were also rocky and muddy areas. Definitely recommend taking your time going thru those areas. The park ranger mentioned they had a lot of sprained and twisted ankles.

Once we got lower there was a split off to continue trekking through the woods or to go down Lake Road. We were all pretty tired and sore at this point and I didn’t want to take any chances on wobbly legs so we went down the dirt road. It was also going to get dark within in the next 2 hours and we didn’t want to be out in the woods in the dark. We did pack flashlights if we needed them though. The park ranger at the check in said there is a beautiful waterfall along the other trail. Next time I will definitely be making it over on that side.

If you are interested in hiking Indian Head these are some tips I can offer you:

1. Know your abilities. The reviews I read said this is a moderate hike. It wasn’t too bad but if you’re not use to longer hikes, this will be difficult. I was sore the next day.
2. Make a reservation! This stressed me out. Of all the things I read about this trail, I didn’t know a reservation was required until the last moment. Thankfully, I was able to get one. It was a true miracle.
3. Wear good hiking shoes/boots. The trails through the woods were muddy and slippery. Make sure you have good shoes that will help keep your feet dry.
4. Make sure you have plenty of water. This hike took us about 6 1/2 hours. (Including the times we stopped for a break and the time spent at the top.) We each had 2 large bottles of water and that got us through. I never hike anywhere without my Yeti bottle.
5. Pack some snacks. You need to fuel your body to keep your energy up for long hikes.
6. Time. If you want to take scenic routes make sure you give yourself enough time. Also, make sure you sit and enjoy the view!
7. Dress in layers. There were definitely times where I was warm but at the top it was chilly and rainy. You can always add or remove clothing if you dress in layers.
8. Pack Accordingly. You don’t want to have a heavy backpack, especially if you are not use to carrying it. I have a small backpack from Amazon I like to carry on day hikes. It’s light weight and can actually hold a good amount of stuff. You should pack first aid kit, flashlight, and maybe even an air horn in case you get lost. The sign going into the Adirondacks said there is 6 million acres of land. My parents packed a rain poncho which came in handy when it started pouring on the way back down.
9. Plan routes ahead of time. Cell service was non-existent for me once I was on the trail. I downloaded the AllTrails map to use when service isn’t available and it was worth it. I also had pictures of the trail maps from the website and check in points. No paper maps were available to pick up once at the trailhead. Printing out your own may be the best option if you don’t use AllTrails or another hiking app.
10. Have fun and remember to leave no trace!

After being in the forest all day we were pretty hungry. We looked up some places to eat that were on the way home and we found George Henry’s. It was a cute place and the staff were super friendly. Our waitress was a hiker and we talked about Indian Head and she recommended some other trails. The food was delicious! I ordered a big bowl of mac and cheese with garlic bread that I split with my mom. My dad got a BBQ burger that had these giant fried pickle spears on top and WOW were they good! Everything on the menu sounded amazing and it will definitely be a must stop next time I visit the Adirondacks.

I want to give a shout out to my parents for doing this hike with me! It’s been on my list of places to hike for awhile and I’m glad I didn’t have to go alone. It was nice to share this experience with them even though it was challenging both mentally and physically. Thank you! ❤