Past POIs - The Wild Center [Franklin County, New York]

Point of Interest - The Wild Center
Location - Franklin County, New York, United States of America
Time of Visit - August 2017

During our long week trip in August, we visited The Wild Center in New York state and it was actually something that I saw from Facebook and was keen on visiting but didn't expect to actually see it any time soon.

Located in Franklin County, about an hour from Lake Placid is The Wild Center which was originally called the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks. The constructions started in 2004 with the old name and when they opened in 2006, it was renamed to The Wild Center. It was funded through donations and the entire campus is now 115 acres in size!

The main attractions that people come to see are the Wild Walk which opened in 2015 where you could actually walk across the treetops of the surrounding area. Not only is there the walk itself, but there is a giant fake bird's nest that you can climb into and there is a big spiderweb that you can play in and lie in. Besides these, there is also the tree house that you can climb and there are lots of information boards spread out in the area.

Inside the center, there is also a theater, a dining hall, some animals and more. Outside, there are plenty of hiking trails that you can wander around for some peace and quiet.

Admission was $17 per adult in 2017 and is actually good for two days, so if you don't finish everything in one day, by all means, just go back. One day was enough for us, but I can see that if you have kids, they would love to come back.

For more information, visit their website at https://www.wildcenter.org/

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

2017 - Lake Placid (Summary)

Duration: 4 days (Friday - Monday)
Driving Distance: 1,050 round-trip (525km one-way)

Cost: Roughly $600 USD for 4 days for the two of us.

Accommodations - $400 USD for 3 nights
Meals - roughly $15-$20 USD per person before tip
Admissions - Wild Center was $20 USD per person (good for 2 days)

Highlights

Adirondack Wildlife Refuge, I thought this was an enjoyable experience. Try to make it there at 10:00am where the host will start talking about the wolves that they have their and the general area. Once you are done, you can walk down the path to see some of the other animals that they have as well as take in some hiking if you like. It is a non-profit organization and operate on donations, so if you end up liking it, give them a little something for their efforts.

Adirondack Wildlife Refuge - Grey wolf

Adirondack Wildlife Refuge - Bald Eagle

The Wild Center, oddly, I heard about this through Facebook which I never credit, but it is a great place to visit. Make sure to go to the Wild Walk portion first if you want pictures before the crowd comes in. We spent about 45 minutes in the Wild Walk portion before we started seeing people. Included in the admission is the Wild Walk, access to all the events in the Wild Center, and best of all, the admission is actually good for two days! Lovely place to visit for kids and adults alike.

Wild Center

Wild Center

Wild Center

Ice Cream Stands, there seemed to be plenty of these and they were all great in my mind. Some cost a bit more than others, but overall, we were never disappointed in any of them. We visited Donnelly's, Skyline Ice Cream, Whitebrook Dairy Bar.

Skyline Ice Cream

Donnelly's Ice Cream

Lowlights

Nothing was particularly disappointing during this trip fortunately. My general comment as a disappointment would be the cost that is associated to some things. Things that I would normally expect to just pay for parking would have admission costs attached to them. High Gorge Falls and Whiteface Mountain come to mind when I think about this.

But, at the same time, the local government parking lot in the Lake Placid area only cost $0.50/hour. So, ups and downs!

Food Suggestions

Redneck Bistro, although we didn't like the service (it was slow and unattentive), I thought that the food was actually the best that we had on this trip.

Redneck Bistro - Southern Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and coleslaw

Redneck Bistro - Redneck Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

Accommodations

We stayed at Alpine Country Inn & Suites in Wilmington and it was a nice place to stay at. The hosts were very gracious and lovely couple. The breakfast was just cereal bars and coffee, however, there are plenty of things for families to do outside. There is a gazebo, a BBQ grill if you want to use it, a small swimming pool, a pirate themes play area for kids and a firepit for evening s'mores and marshmallows.

Overall, we both really enjoyed the place and would recommend it to others as long as they don't mind staying outside of Lake Placid (which wasn't an issue for us).

Alpine Country Inn & Suites

Alpine Country Inn & Suites

Tips

Little Super Market in Wilmington is a great stop for lunch sandwiches if you are in the area. $3.50 at the time got us a sandwich with 1 meat and the amount of meat put in is based on weight and if you look at the middle, it looks like it is an inch thick! Perfect thing to buy for hiking.

Little Super Market - Sandwiches

Aldi just outside of Saranac Lake is a discount grocery store to buy things before you hit the Lake Placid area. A water jug was under $1.00 and a big bag of their local chips was just over $1.00.

Final Thoughts

This place was suggested by Allison's coworker and it was an enjoyable experience. There is plenty of hiking to do if you are into that sort of things, if not, the scenery is very nice and there seems to be plenty to do all year round (hiking in the summer, skiing/snowboarding in the winter).

It has a very small town feel, with the only large place that I noticed being Marshalls, Gap, and Bass. Everything else seemed like local independent shops which is nice. Everyone was friendly, and we had a good time.

It's a good way to spend a few days. We could have stayed more to do some other things, but we had a good taste of what it had to offer. Some things that I would consider next time would be to do the Olympic Passport to visit Whiteface Mountain and visit the Olympic sights. However, since that would've taken up an entire day, we decided against it. And there are plenty of hiking trails and fire towers that I would've liked to visit. Maybe next time!

2017 - Lake Placid - Day 2

Today, our goal is to visit The Wild Center in Tupper Lake.

The Wild Center

We went to check out the breakfast set-up at the hotel and unfortunately it is just cereal bars, coffee, tea and some orange juice. So, don't expect much in terms of breakfast if you stay here.

Based on our conversation with the host, we went to Little Super Market for some lunch sandwiches since they offer filled sandwiches for a low price. When we got there, you actually make your sandwich yourself by filling in a piece of paper with what you want in your sandwich. You get to pick your choice of bread (white, rye, sub), meats (there must have been over 15 types of deli meat), veggies, and spread. Once you have filled in the sheet, just hand it to the person behind the counter and wait while they make your sandwich. A sandwich with 1 meat comes to $3.50 a sandwich.

We made it to Washboard for a donut which I read about online. It was $0.85 a donut and we got the glazed and peanut butter. Definitely get a donut that has a spread instead of the glazed one since it is fresh vs old (at least that's how we felt based on how they tasted).

Wild Center was next and it cost us $20 per person when we went. However, the ticket is actually good for two days if you want to re-visit (or maybe if you get rained out). We basically charged to do the Wild Walk portion of the place first since it would likely get really crowded as it got later in the day (it opens at 10:00am).

The Wild Center

The Wild Center

The Wild Walk portion is a tree-top trek which has a bird's nest that you can walk into, some suspension bridges, as well as a huge spider web made of rope that you can play in. We spent 45 minutes here.

The Wild Center

The Wild Center

After the Wild Walk, we did some hiking in the area, there are a few trails and the ones that are worth it in my mind are the ones by the river which is right next to the Wild Walk. Our hiking took another 45 minutes before we arrived at the Wild Center.

Little Super Market sandwiches

There are actually quite a lot of cool things to see in the Wild Center. There are exhibits with animals like otters, toads, frogs, bugs, and there are plenty of fish here as well. There is a theater with short films, as well as scheduled talks where staff talk about things like amphibians and the otters. We had lunch while we were here and ended up leaving at 1:00pm (so, we spent 3 hours here).

The Wild Center

The Wild Center

Went to the local Tupper Lake street festival where we wandered around for about 30 minutes before heading to Skyline ice cream. We got the small black raspberry twist for $2.30. It was actually really good. I'd recommend it if you are in the area.

Skyline Ice Cream

Skyline Ice Cream

I tried to drive us to a fire tower, but unfortunately due to the heavy rain, the road was actually flooded out which was disappointing. To make up for this, we went back to Donnelly's for the second ice cream of the day! Today's flavour was mountain almond with chocolate and vanilla twist which was $3.60 for a regular sized cone. This flavour was amazing in my mind. Reminded me of the Chinese almond tofu dessert.

Donnelly's Ice Cream

Ended up at Aldi which is a grocery store for some snacks and then rested at the hotel before dinner which would be at McDougall's pub and grill based on the host's recommendation. We ordered the pub steak and the fish and chips which came out to $38 before tip. Make sure to sit outside if you can for the nice view. The food was good, nothing special in my mind.

McDougall's Pub and Grill - Pub Steak

McDougall's Pub and Grill - Fish and Chips

Returned to the hotel to prep for hopefully a good evening of campfire and marshmallows. The host actually showed us how to make s'mores which consisted of them warming the graham cracker and chocolate by placing it near the fire while they roasted marshmallows. This would allow the chocolate to get warm and be melty by the time you assemble everything. Unfortunately, we got rained out after about 3 s'mores and had to call it a day.

Alpine Country Inn & Suites - s'mores!

Tomorrow, we visit the Wildlife Refuge and try to do some hiking.