Alexandria Bay NY (Fall Colors and a Castle!)

This area is known as Thousand Islands because there are over 1800 islands in the Saint Lawrence River that straddles the Canada & US border (some of the islands are US, some are Canada).  We visited a castle on one of these islands and also hiked trails in the Adirondacks.

Fall in the Adirondacks 

Fall colors along our drive

We hiked two trails up to the peaks to get amazing views..

Castle Rock Trail

It was an overcast day, however the views were still amazing.

Azure Mountain Trail

We made it to the TOP - now we climb the tower!
And the take mmma bit of a rest before heading down

Pictures and some drone snippet

Worth the Hike!

This is an example of the steep/rocky climb
On the way up we crossed paths with a Mom hiking back down with 5 children!
One was a baby she was carrying in a front/chest baby carrier, while holding the hand of a 2-3yr old, while encouraging a 5-6yr old 
who didn't look too happy to make the walk on her own... 
and 2 older sisters 10+ that thankfully were making it look easy!
I mentioned to the Mom that “you have your hands full”
and she responded, “not as full as my heart” ❤️    Wow!!
I seriously don’t know how she was doing it.. I was having a hard enough time getting me, myself and I up that mountain - LOL 

Beautiful Fall colors

Hang on John!

Can/Did John bend a tree trunk?!? LOL

Boldt Castle

We took a ferry to the island.

Boldt Castle was built on one of the 1000 islands, named Heart Island,

George Boldt, general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and his family had a cottage on Hart Island (the island's original name) In 1900, George Boldt launched construction campaign to build a 126 room six-story "castle" as a present to his wife.

The construction of Boldt Castle ceased abruptly in 1904 after the death of Boldt's wife, Louise Boldt. Boldt never returned to Heart Island, leaving this structure as a monument of his love.  ( so sad!) Upon George’s death, his children sold the island.  

For 73 years, the castle and other structures were left exposed to the harsh winter weather and occasional vandals with no upkeep.  In 1977 the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island for one dollar, under the agreement that all revenues obtained from the castle operation would be applied towards restoration, so that the island would be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.  Detail original plans for the house are being used to restore/finish based on those plans (where possible)

View from the ferry boat.

The Alster Tower 

The “Shell Room” was to be used for dancing and was so named because of the shape of the roof. The basement housed a bowling alley and had plans for the upper floors contain a billiard room, library, bedrooms, cafe, grill and kitchen.

A Bowling alley in Alster Tower!

Beautiful carved fireplace in the library - with whimsical carvings-  fireplace has Hansel and Gretel, as well as the witch carved into it.

Ballroom

The Power House was built to hold a generator to supply the island with power, and now is more of a museum of how electric power was obtained in the early 1900s.

View from a balcany of Castle

Boldt Crest

John really liked the sign for our campground

Beautiful sunsets!