New York’s Grand Canyon has 150-foot walls, roaring waterfalls, and it opened to visitors in 1870

Where the Ausable River cuts the stone

Near the hamlet of Keeseville in Upstate New York, a sandstone gorge runs two miles long with walls dropping up to 150 feet. The Ausable River carved it, then rolls on to empty into Lake Champlain a mile to the east.

People call it the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks, and it has welcomed visitors since 1870, which makes it one of the oldest natural attractions in the country. The towering cliffs and waterfalls are only the start.

Half a billion years pressed into rock

The walls you walk past are Potsdam Sandstone, a rock that settled on ancient tidal flats about 500 million years ago during the Cambrian period. The gorge came much later.

Around 10,000 years ago, retreating glaciers from the last ice age set the Ausable River loose across the land.

The water found vertical cracks in the sandstone and exploited them, cutting a deep, narrow, angular path over thousands of years.

Rainbow Falls drove the whole thing, a 91-foot drop eroding backward and stretching the gorge longer with each passing century.

Five miles of trails through old forest

You get about five miles of self-guided trails here, threading through Adirondack forest along both the rim and the canyon floor.

The one-mile Inner Sanctum Trail drops you into the heart of the gorge on stone walkways and stairs, passing Pulpit Rock, Devil’s Oven, and Mystic Gorge.

The two-mile Rim Walk follows the upper edge through the trees, an easier route most people can handle. The Dry Chasm Trail covers a mile and a half through old river channels the Ausable abandoned long ago.

Signs along the way explain the plants, the wildlife, and the rock.

Floating the gorge from water level

The Classic Tour pulls the biggest crowds, and for good reason. You hike the upper chasm first, then a guide floats you through the lower gorge on a raft.

The route runs through the Grand Flume, a tight, deep corridor where rock walls climb on both sides and the river breaks over small rapids.

In warmer months you can swap the raft for a tube and drift through the same scenery at your own pace. Either way, you see the canyon from the water, with the walls hanging overhead in a way no rim trail can match.

Stone steps and two swinging bridges

The Riverwalk starts with a long descent on stone steps to the canyon floor, dropping you face to face with Rainbow Falls from a riverside spot.

Down at water level, you walk worn paths beside the river, passing Elephant’s Head and the rapids that shaped all of this.

The route crosses two suspension bridges strung high above the water, with cargo netting and solid planks under your feet.

Guides take you through Devil’s Oven and past Jacob’s Ladder before the trail eases into the quiet Inner Sanctum. Kids five and up can come along.

Climbing the canyon walls on steel cable

The Adventure Trail is a via ferrata, a climbing route that runs steel cables bolted straight into the canyon walls.

You wear a harness clipped to the cable the whole time as you cross cable bridges, climb cargo nets, and edge along ledges high above the Ausable.

The path reaches parts of the chasm no other trail touches, including close-up views of Elephant’s Head and a stretch called Hell’s Gate. Guides lead it, and beginners do it all the time with no climbing background.

Want more, rappelling tours drop up to 80 feet, with cable traverses hanging as high as 130 feet over the river.

Ancient sea life frozen in the walls

The Potsdam Sandstone holds evidence of life from roughly 500 million years back, when this whole area sat under a shallow sea.

You can spot ripple marks left by old tidal currents, locked in the rock for half a billion years.

Trace fossils show up too, including trackways where ancient arthropods crawled across the sea floor, with one notable specimen on display near the entrance.

The New York State Museum reports that the dam area near the chasm holds rare jellyfish fossils, among only a handful of such deposits known anywhere.

The place doubles as an earth science classroom, even on a quick visit.

When the falls turn to ice

Winter rebuilds the place. Waterfalls freeze into towering columns and hanging curtains of ice, and the sandstone walls gather massive icicles.

Trees along the rim coat themselves in clear ice that catches the low winter light.

Guided tours lasting about two hours take you along the trails on snowshoes or ice cleats, and the Inner Sanctum Trail opens only on these guided trips.

On your own, you can take the two-mile Rim Walk, with snowshoe and cleat rentals waiting on-site. Far fewer people come this time of year, so you get a quieter, more solitary trip with a completely different mood.

Fall color against gray stone

Come autumn, the gorge and the forest around it light up.

Hardwoods along the rim and inside the canyon shift to deep reds, oranges, and golds, and the color against the gray sandstone walls makes for sharp views from the trails and overlooks.

The crowds thin out a lot compared to the packed summer months, so the visit feels more peaceful. Some water activities start shutting down as the season runs late, but the hiking trails stay open.

Time your trip for mid-October and the scenery pays you back.

Mountain biking, disc golf, and a campground

Right next door, the Ausable Chasm Campground and Recreation Center runs tent sites, cabins, and RV hookups.

The recreation center has more than 25 miles of mountain biking trails built on sandy soil that drains fast, with routes for everyone from first-timers to expert riders.

If you ride hard, you can link into the Wickham Marsh State trails, which run through wetlands all the way to Lake Champlain. An 18-hole disc golf course, a swimming pool, and playgrounds round out the family stuff.

Stay and Play packages bundle a campground stay with discounted admission to the chasm.

Keeseville’s three historic bridges

The nearby hamlet of Keeseville holds three historic bridges over the Ausable River, all within about 500 yards of each other.

Master mason Solomon Townsend built the Stone Arch Bridge in 1843, and it remains one of the oldest stone arch bridges still in use in the country.

A wrought-iron Pratt truss bridge from 1878 and an 1888 suspension footbridge finish the set, each from a different era and built a different way.

In 1987, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the three a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Keeseville is a National Register historic district too, with more than 140 historic structures dating from 1820 to 1936.

An Underground Railroad story next door

Step over to the North Star Underground Railroad Museum, set right beside the chasm entrance in the Town of Chesterfield Heritage Center.

The museum tells the story of the Champlain Line of the Underground Railroad, which used the Upper Hudson River, the Champlain Canal, and Lake Champlain as a corridor to freedom in Canada.

Exhibits run from multimedia presentations to artifacts like leg irons, along with the story of John Thomas, a man who escaped slavery in Maryland and built a life as an Adirondack farmer. Admission is free, with donations accepted.

For the 2026 season, the museum opens Fridays through Sundays from late May through mid-October.

Visiting Ausable Chasm in New York

You will find Ausable Chasm at 2144 Route 9, Ausable Chasm, NY 12911, about 45 minutes from Lake Placid and 12 miles south of Plattsburgh. From New York City, plan on roughly five hours north up I-87.

The chasm stays open year-round, but hours and which activities run depend on the season, so check the official website before you go.

Some offerings, like rock climbing and certain guided tours, may have limited availability in a given year.

Lake Champlain sits a mile east, and if you want to cross, the Grand Isle–Plattsburgh and Charlotte–Essex ferries are your current options, so check Lake Champlain Transportation first.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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