Giant Mountain, New York - Hiking

I did this hike 7/21/19. It was an amazing hike. I came from Ohio and my hiking legs were dormant. I started from what is considered the secondary trailhead at Roaring Brook. It’s a little longer than the Primary from what I’ve read. I lived in Arizona for 8 years and if you’ve ever done Camelback, this was basically doing 3 Camelbacks non stop. I knew it was steep going up but really felt it coming down. At the top it was a good 20 degrees cooler, which was a nice break from the heat wave hitting the Adirondacks. The views were amazing at the top and endless. I’m not sure how anyone can give this hike a 4. I wish I had my old AZ legs and would have taken the 1.7 mile trek over to Rocky Ridge to knock out two 46ers in a day. It’s clearly marked near the top of Giant. I was told the views were 360 and amazing. The trail was well marked. You follow the red tags until you see there is .7 left, then they turn to blue round markers to the top. You’ll see a sign that says Giant Ridge and those have the red markets and another sign that says just Giant and that’s the only time I had to really think if I made the right choice. There’s another sign to Privy and I have no idea where that goes. I highly recommend if your in the Adirondacks and you workout on a fairly consistent basis. The time frames I’ve read are fairly accurate. I was about 4 up and 2.5 hours down.

Giant and Rocky Peak are two of my favorite mountains to hike. I have done this high peak in all seasons and love the view every time. I particularly enjoy hiking it in the winter as there are less crowds and the views/terrain is spectacular.

for those in good shape looking for a quick hike, you can summit in under 1 hour 30 mins relatively easily and down in under an hour. 1 hour 24 mins to the summit for me in high heat and humidity, included stops to admire epic views.

Completed early September. Was a tough hike with large slabs to traverse near the top. No views for us, but fun day on the mountain.