Saranac Lake is an AMAZING place to go on vacation for families who like to get outdoors. The town is literally surrounded by family-friendly hiking trails, including the Saranac Six, which we began to tackle on our trip there (we’ve now hiked Baker, Ampersand, and St. Regis! Yeah!).

But there are also trails nearby that aren’t part of the Saranac Six, and we didn’t want to miss out on those either. We decided to hike Panther Mountain on one of our “easy” days. The trail to the summit of Panther Mountain is super short, at only 0.6 miles (0.96 kilometres), but the views are really great. The trail is also steep enough that it gets your heart rate up, but not SO steep that it’s not manageable for just about anyone. Dogs are allowed on this trail, and we saw a few on our way back down!

Getting There

Panther Mountain was a little further out of town than some of the other trails we’d hiked during our time staying in Saranac Lake. It took us about twenty minutes to get out to the trailhead from downtown Saranac Lake. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.230852, -74.335404.

There was a parking lot across the street from the trailhead, and we pulled in there next to one other car. There was space for about ten cars here. There were no facilities at the parking lot, or at the trailhead.

There was a small pond (Panther Pond) below the parking lot, with a skinny trail leaving the lot and heading down to it.

The Trailhead

There was a sign at the trailhead letting us know where the trail began. In order to get to it, we had to cross Highway 3, which is a busy two lane highway with fast moving traffic. We crossed carefully, and then headed into the forest! There was no trail registry at the trailhead like there are on longer hikes in NY.

The trail immediately started to climb upwards, and it felt TOUGH, because we didn’t have any time to warm up! The trail was quite wide, with some rocks and roots to welcome us. Switchbacks up the mountain started almost immediately. Better than heading straight up!

We spotted our first trail marker fairly early into the hike. There were lots of big, beautiful, old trees on Panther Mountain. With how much shade they cast over the forest floor (and lots of dropped pine needles), the trail wasn’t always worn into the dirt well enough for us to follow it confidently. But, there were enough trail markers that we were able to follow those easily, and used them to stay on track.

We hiked along a slight ridge, with the forest floor dropping away gently on our left hand side.

As we made our way up the mountain, the road was on our left hand side. It stayed in view through the treeline until we had hiked just over 0.2 miles (0.3 kilometres). We were able to hear traffic for a little longer than that.

Almost There!

At the halfway mark, we walked between two small boulders, then past a very cool, hollowed out old tree. Just beyond my new favorite tree was another little boulder that looked like it was very precariously placed, balancing on a small rock.

We crossed over a bit of open rock face, and then, when we had hiked only 0.45 miles (0.7 kilometres), we found ourselves on the summit! Right away, we looked around for the summit marker, because we had thought there was a little ways to go. Turns out we really were there, and so we settled in to enjoy the views.

It took us just over twenty minutes to get to the summit. We spent some time there hanging out, and after a bit, decided to head back down. We were able to get back down even more quickly than we had gone up, and arrived back at the trailhead having spent just over an hour on the mountain.

Trail Thoughts

Panther Mountain was a great little hike! The trails around Saranac Lake really do not disappoint when it comes to the amount of work you have to put in to get a great view, and Panther was no exception! Considering how short the trail to the summit was, the relative ease with which we were able to climb it, and the abundance of trail markers, I can confidently say that this is a great trail for almost anyone.

It was also absolutely perfect for us to get out and stretch our legs on a day where we wanted to be outside, but kind of take it easy. At this point, were quite confident hiking with our daughter, but for anyone who’s just starting to hike some elevation gain with their kids, this is the PERFECT starter mountain. Is a starter mountain a thing..? Well, it is now!

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Gear We Brought**

*We talked with our doctor about bringing our baby out hiking in the Adirondacks. We can’t know yet if our daughter is allergic to things like wasp stings. So we wanted the doctor’s opinion on our options to help keep her safe, since it can take longer to get to help or have help come to you on the mountains. Our doctor felt comfortable prescribing the EpiPen for us to use in the case of an emergency, and we’re lucky enough to have good insurance that covers it.

**We already had our bags packed for the longer hikes we were doing, and we weren’t going to take stuff OUT for this one!