24. High Peaks, New York -- A Great Place to Pee, But Forget About Your Cell Phone

It was delightful that so many people took so much interest in my first pee place post. Who knew I'd hit such a nerve? And who knew that I'd have the opportunity so soon to take you to my 2nd favorite place, but another trip to the Albany train station allowed me the chance.

Somewhere on the Adirondack Northway, aka  I-87, aka the New York Thruway (signage in Upstate New York is so confusing), between Exits 29 and 30, high in the Adirondacks (it feels like another world), you'll find the High Peaks Welcome Center. If you are on the way and you need to pee, it's worth holding it. Bypass the old run-down grungy places, and wait for High Peaks to relieve yourself.

Reminiscent in feel, and paying homage to, the Adirondack Great Camps, this place is lovely, in a lovely setting.  A few photos for your relief and pleasure.

  Welcome to our French-speaking neighbors.

Res ipsa loquitur.  Well, okay, I'll spell it out:  Beautiful scenery.

Bear-and-raccoon-proof trash bins.  It takes a high IQ to figure out how to put one's trash in these.  Not that I'd know much about that.  The grounds are impeccably clean and well maintained, and there are many picnic tables.

A clarification card in the exhibit.  We wouldn't want to mislead anyone into thinking all these specimens came from New York.  (I got a kick out of this for some reason.)

As clean and beautiful and immaculately tidy as a four-star hotel.  Not an odor to be smelled.  I'd eat off these counters.  It is always this clean every time I've been here, several times over five-plus years.

I'd even eat off the baby-changing station.  And that might be the very last time you'll ever hear me say something like that.

Interesting display of fishing lures.  Above it was a good-looking, informative poster about fishing in the area.

Daylight was on the wane when we got back to the northbound stop:

Interestingly, as with the Williston rest areas, the northbound facility is slightly more lovely and has slightly more detail than the southbound.  I wonder if this is intentional.....and for what reason?  It seems oddly coincidental.  I love that moose weathervane on top of the northbound one.

One thing you will NOT find here:  Food, except vending machines.  And cell phone service.  It is very desolate out here, and the lack of cell service feels a bit disconcerting in this day and age when we are all so reliant on being connected.  It is the source of much controversy and random interviews of weird women photographing their knitting in the snow at rest stops. However, there is a state police station inside this northbound unit.  A nice, cute officer came out and said hi while I was snapping photos. 

Also, if you are transporting illegal aliens or drugs, fair warning:  There is a semi-permanent U.S. Immigration/Customs/Border Patrol (?) something-or-other traffic stop set up just as you approach the southbound High Peaks rest stop.  Rumble strips warn you to slow down for a good long distance before it. Apparently there was a bad accident a while back, where a tractor trailer truck driver didn't see the signs saying "stop ahead" (?) and just plowed right through. I am quite sure there were many fatalities as a result of that event.

So you see?  New York can do it, too -- not just Vermont.

Comments

[Rachel]

You make rest stop such a special place, perfect :) and we were travelling in that area last March and I missed that lovely place, now we will have to go back (I can find a few other reasons for that trip!).

[Rachel]

You make rest stops such a special place, perfect :) and we were travelling in that area last March and I missed that lovely place, now we will have to go back (I can find a few other reasons for that trip!).

[Kristen]

You know, I think there's a guide book waiting to be written...

[maryse]

ever since you post about no cell phone service i've been wondering -- do they have pay phones at least? yes, i obsess about insignificant things. i'm not even normally nervous about being without cell phone service.

[margeneq]

Norma you could get a job with a travel magazine as the pee stop reporter!

[Teresa C]

You should start a website where people can send in their "pee stop" recommendations and reviews. Ha. Organized by state and highway. That would be fun.

[Kay]

This series is like Daniel Deronda on Masterpiece Theater. You just don't want it to end.

[Manise]

Cracking up at Margene! Who knew that her name now sports the letter "q" in it? :-)

[marianne]

What an outstanding pee stop! LOVE the rocks (well known secret of mine, I DO collect rocks) and the fishing lures... apparently I've got my geek on this morning.
I know that I-44 from Tulsa to OKC used to have emergency phones situated along the way but they are no more... due to cell phones... seems to me those would be a good idea for that stretch of road..... Is that Abigail and David in the photo?

[Carol]

Niiiice. And I'm sitting here on conference call with my back teeth floating!

[shanalulu]

Nicer northbound rest stops because the vacationers are headed up north, all excited, and ready to spend. Less nice on the southbound side because they already got yo' money!

Here ends Cynicism Thursday.

[Marcia Cooke]

That's a good one, for sure. We found a few on our car trip across country (Ohio has a nice one) but the one that blew me away was in Wyoming, of all places. Run by Mormons, for what it's worth.

[Jean]

I'm getting in the car right now and heading north!

[Cheryl S.]

I've been so sad that my favorite rest top in the Virgin River Gorge (small snippet of Arizona that you pass through on your way from St. George, Utah to Mesquite, Nevada) was closed when the area was made into a campground. Lovely, clean, spectacular views, nice picnic area, vending machines, historical information, etc. It was one of the finest rest stops I'd ever been to, and I even wrote to the State of Arizona to thank them after the first time I saw it.

[naomi]

So....do you go through the islands to get there? We usually take US4 to 22A, leaving 87 by Lake George.

[Roxie]

I like the idea of a book. "Rest Stops Remarks" perhaps. Or, "The Buck Rests Here."

[Liz]

I nearly explode every time I come back to VT from NJ, refusing to pee in MA, waiting for that beautiful Vermont Welcome Center...

[Suzanne]

I love your "pee stop" tour.

Being a NYer that has lived many, many years near the Northway, I have to clear up some confusion. It is true that both the Northway and the Thruway are considered I-87, however the Northway and the Thruway are two different roads. The Thruway goes from NYC to Albany and then heads west to Buffalo. The Northway starts at Albany and goes north. The best way to understand it is that if you are paying a toll then it is the Thruway and if you aren't it is the Northway.

I have a friend from Ohio who has the hardest time grasping it and all us locals can't understand why she doesn't understand. :)