Wright Peak - Adirondack State Park, NY
Posted by: 
sagefemme
N 44° 09.103 W 073° 58.779
18T E 581597 N 4889230
Wright peak is 16th highest among the 46 High Peaks. It has a very small bald summit (as summits go) with an extensive Alpine Zone to traverse to reach it. The summit is 4580 feet above sea level, with a 2400 foot vertical ascent.
Waymark Code: WMHTD3
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/12/2013
Views: 3
Take the Van Hovenburg Trail (
visit link) from Adirondack Loj Visitor Center for .9 miles. Don't forget to sign in (and out) at the trail register (
visit link) so folks can figure out whether you've come down safely. Here's a waymark along the way (
visit link) . Keep going straight when the VHT turns left to Marcy Dam (and Phelps Peak and Mt Marcy). The trail splits again 2 miles later, where Wright Peak is to the left, and the trail to Algonquin (and Iroquois beyond that) is to the right. Before you reach the summit you will see a string of cairns marking the trail above the tree line (
visit link) .
Total one way distance according to the trail markings is 3.3 miles, but this website (
visit link) cites the round trip distance as 7 miles, taking the average hiker 7 hours to complete. (Take that for what it's worth: I took a 9-yr-old up in 3 hours, spent a full hour at the top, and took 2 hours and 50 minutes to get him down again. Lots of folks hiked it faster, but 7 hours is a good number to use for planning purposes.)
Website descriptions of this peak warn that it can experience high winds... Perhaps the worst of all the high peaks, and I would love to be able tell you why that is, but I don't know... Yet.
There is also a plaque commemorating the lost lives of 4 people whose plane crashed into the summit (or nearly the summit). Waymarked Wreckage remains there today. (
visit link)