Rainy Days near the Cabins

A wet day at the cabins has more in it than the weather suggests. Malone, about ten road miles north, has a library, a bowling center and a history museum, and Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Tupper Lake, 43 to 57 road miles south, add movie theaters, an indoor climbing gym, indoor ice, arcades, a nature museum and two Main Streets of shops. This page lists them nearest first, with road miles, what each place offers and what to check before you leave the hot tub.

Rainy-day places by distance

Road miles are measured from the cabins on the same route planner the rest of this site uses. Malone is about twenty minutes away, Saranac Lake about an hour, and Lake Placid, Tupper Lake and Plattsburgh about an hour and a quarter each; add a little in heavy rain or fog. Hours and prices change with the season, so treat every number below as a starting point and check the venue's own page the morning you go.

Every drive south of the cabins runs through the Adirondack Park on two-lane roads, so pick one town for the day and stay there. A wet morning in Malone can end with the week's groceries; the groceries page has the stores.

At the cabins

The first rainy-day plan is the one that needs no car. Each cabin has wifi with an ethernet connection, a TV (The Modern Pine's listing says HDTV, and the listings mention satellite TV), a full kitchen and a washer and dryer, so wet boots and jackets from yesterday's hike are dry by lunch.

The Modern Pine and The Aviator each have a Jotul GF 160 DV, a cast-iron direct-vent gas stove with glass on three sides, rated at 24,000 BTU on high. It heats up to about 1,000 square feet, which is more than the cabin, so the living room stays warm with the windows streaming. One guest in The Modern Pine wrote:

The big windows and stove place heater created a cozy environment to sit and watch the snow fall.

The same stove works for rain. The post on the Jotul stoves covers how they run. The Modern Tiny Home has no stove; it has heating and air conditioning, two big picture windows over the woods, and a roof you can hear. A guest there wrote that with no attic "you will hear every raindrop that falls on the roof," which some people come for.

None of the three listings lists board games, puzzles or books, so pack a deck of cards and a game from home if your group plays. Downtown Saranac Lake has shops that sell books and board games (more below) if you forget.

Cooking through a wet afternoon

A rainy day is the day for the slow dish you skip when you are out on the trails. The kitchens have a stove, an oven, a microwave, a refrigerator with a freezer, a toaster, a kettle, a coffee maker, cooking basics and dishes, and The Modern Pine and The Aviator also have a dishwasher; The Aviator's listing adds a baking sheet. One guest noted that the cookware in The Modern Pine is limited, so bring a favorite pot if a recipe depends on it. Every cabin has a grill on the deck, and a light rain does not stop burgers. The groceries page has Malone's stores and their hours, and the dining page has takeout for the night nobody cooks.

The hot tub in the rain

Every cabin has a private hot tub, and The Modern Pine's listing calls its tub available all year and open 24 hours. A soak in the rain is one of the better ways to spend a wet evening here. A guest at The Modern Tiny Home wrote:

Our favorite part was of course the hot tub snow, rain or sunshine we were inside of it.

Three rules make it work. First, thunder ends the soak. The National Weather Service's lightning rule is "When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors," and it warns that there is no safe place outside when thunderstorms are around; a hot tub is the worst place to wait one out. Second, keep the cover closed between soaks. The listings note that the tubs have covers with no lock or gate, and The Modern Pine's cover is held with clips that should be unclipped before you lift it and clipped again after. Third, bring a dry towel out in a bag and leave dry clothes just inside the door. The hot tub page has more on the tubs, and health and safety covers storms.

Malone on a wet day

Malone is the short drive, about ten road miles north and twenty minutes in the car, and it has the closest indoor plans.

The Wead Library

The Wead Library is at 64 Elm Street. It opens Monday to Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it is closed on Sundays and twelve listed holidays, including Columbus Day and Veterans Day. It closes whenever the Malone Central School District closes or goes remote for weather, so a snowstorm that shuts the schools shuts the library too; if nobody answers the phone, it is closed. This fall's used book sale runs from October 2 to 19, an easy way to stock the cabin with paperbacks. It began with an endowment Mary Kasson Wead announced on Christmas Eve, 1881.

The House of History

The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society runs the House of History at 51 Milwaukee Street. Museum tours are by appointment only, so call (518) 483-2750 the day before; the office is open Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the Schryer Center for research opens Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or by appointment. The Malone history museum guide has what is inside and the village history behind it.

Lucky Strike Lanes

Lucky Strike Lanes is a family-owned bowling center at 36 Woodward Street, about 9.5 road miles from the cabins, with a grill, a full bar, cosmic bowling on some nights and clutch bowling, where the lane appears to move as the ball rolls. It opens every day, from 9 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays, with shorter weekday hours that the dining page lists in full. Leagues bowl here too, so reserve a lane online or call (518) 483-5220; Thursday's all-you-can-bowl night takes no reservations. In February 2026 the lanes hosted the six-game bowling tournament of the Empire State Winter Games.

No movie theater in Malone

Malone has no cinema today. The Plaza Theater on Pearl Street, later the Cinema Plaza, closed in 2000 and the building came down in 2004. The nearest screens are in Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Plattsburgh, below.

The YMCA

The Malone YMCA is in the old Company I Armory at 326 West Main Street and has served the town since 2004. It opens weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it says members and guests are welcome; ask at the desk about a guest visit. Its swim program is lessons at the Franklin Academy pool, and it posts no public swim, so it is not a drop-in pool for visitors.

Shopping in Malone

Malone's Main Street is also US 11, and the Salmon River flows north through the middle of the village. Most shopping is practical: the supermarkets, Walmart and the drugstores along Main Street and State Route 11. The visitor center at 497 East Main Street, next to Arsenal Green, opens weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and keeps a 24-hour information room to the left of the building with maps, brochures and menus, which is the best place to ask what is open that day. The Malone town guide has the full layout of the village.

Movies

There are three places to see a film within reach, and none in Malone or Saranac Lake. Saranac Lake's Pontiac Theatre on Broadway burned on December 19, 1978, and the village has had no cinema since.

• Adirondack State Theater, Tupper Lake. At 100 Park Street, about 58 road miles from the cabins. It first opened in 1914, now has two screens, shows first-run movies and is one of the few places in the Adirondacks that shows films in 3D. In summer it adds $5 classic films in the afternoon. Check its schedule page for the current week's films and times.
• Palace Theatre, Lake Placid. At 2430 Main Street, about 52 road miles away. The tourism office describes a four-screen, family-owned theater built in 1926. Its 2026 listing shows films at 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday and at 3:30 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, closed Mondays. It takes cash only and does not sell tickets ahead; evening tickets were $10 for adults and $8 for children, matinees $8, and every ticket $5 on Tuesdays. The weekly listing runs to December 27, 2026. The 25th Lake Placid Film Festival fills the Palace from November 5 to 8, 2026, the theater's 100th year.
• Regal Champlain Centre, Plattsburgh. An 8-screen cinema inside the Champlain Centre mall at 60 Smithfield Boulevard, about 59 road miles away. Check Regal's listings for times.

The Palace's 3:30 p.m. weekend show leaves time for dinner on Main Street before the drive home. The Tupper Lake theater and The Wild Center are in the same village, which makes a full day in one town.

Bowling

Four bowling centers are within reach. Massena's Pappy's Bowlmor Lanes, open since 1941, has closed for good, so do not plan on it.

• Lucky Strike Lanes, Malone. The closest, about ten road miles; details above.
• Romano's Saranac Lanes, Saranac Lake. At 11 Bloomingdale Avenue, about 43 road miles, in the old Mar-Mac Bowling Center building; the 2006 plans called for eight lanes, a snack bar, an arcade and a sports bar. North Country Community College held free student bowling nights there in 2026. Call ahead for open bowling times.
• Big Z's at Lake Placid Lanes, Lake Placid. At 2750 Main Street, about 52 road miles, in the building that was Bowlwinkles. It has eight lanes with ordering from your lane, a multi-sport simulator, shuffleboard, pool, darts and arcade games, a casual restaurant for lunch and dinner and two bars, and it is listed as open daily all year. Call (518) 302-5245 for lane times.
• North Bowl, Plattsburgh. A longtime family-owned center that closed in May 2025 for renovation and reopened on July 2, 2025 with nylon-string pinsetters. It is the farthest of the four, about an hour and a quarter from the cabins; confirm it is open and its hours before the drive.

Indoor pools and swimming

Swimming indoors is the weak spot of a rainy day near the cabins. In October 2026 we found no indoor pool within an hour's drive that posts public swim hours for visitors. The Malone YMCA's swimming is lessons at the Franklin Academy pool, with no open swim on its schedule. Hotels in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake have indoor pools for their own guests, and none that we could find sells a day pass, so do not count on one.

In summer, Malone's new village pool at Malone Memorial Recreation Park, completed in 2025, is outdoors. It is a warm-weather plan for the dry hours between showers. The hot tub at the cabin is the warm water you can count on.

Indoor ice skating

Indoor rinks make good rainy-day plans from October on, and both are under a roof.

Saranac Lake Civic Center

At 213 Ampersand Avenue, about 43 road miles from the cabins. Public skating runs from October to March. October 2026 sessions fell mostly on weekends, such as 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 17 and 3:30 p.m. on Sundays. Reserve a spot online by clicking the session date; skate rentals are $5. Call (518) 637-7401 with questions.

The Olympic Center in Lake Placid

The Olympic Center at 2634 Main Street holds two historic indoor rinks, the 1932 Jack Shea Arena and the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena. Indoor public skating costs $15 for adults 20 to 64 and $12 for ages 7 to 19, seniors 65 and over and the military, with children 6 and under free; skate rental is $10 and a skate assister for a beginner is $5. Sessions run about an hour and a quarter and cluster around school holidays: the posted schedule listed two sessions a day from December 26 to 31 on the 1932 rink and then none until mid-February. Sessions have capacity limits and can sell out, so buy ahead and arrive 30 minutes early. The Olympic sites guide has the rest of the building.

Indoor climbing

Hi Notch Indoor Climbing is at Mt Van Hoevenberg, the Olympic sports complex just outside Lake Placid, about 60 road miles from the cabins. It has more than 1,500 feet of climbing space: a 30-foot top-rope wall with three TruBlue auto belays and several lead routes, bouldering and traverse walls, a training area and a new Tension Board 2, an LED wall whose angle adjusts. Shoes, harnesses and belay devices are provided.

• Daytime climbing with instructors, for first-timers and families with older children: Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., sessions starting and ending on the hour, $15 an hour for ages 3 and up, and climbing shoes $5 an hour. The gym closed from September 29 to October 4, 2026, so check the schedule for other closures.
• After-hours climbing for climbers who can belay themselves: Monday to Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m., $7 a day.
• Learn to climb for adults: the third Sundays of November, December and January from 4 to 6 p.m.

Pair it with lunch on Main Street in Lake Placid, about eight road miles back toward the village, and a museum or movie in the afternoon.

Arcades and games

For an hour of games with a teenager, Lake Placid's Main Street has the most in one place.

• Big Z's at Lake Placid Lanes has arcade games, pool, darts, shuffleboard and a multi-sport simulator next to the lanes.
• Faizy's Fun House, on Main Street, opened in the spring of 2024 with more than 30 games on its main floor, including racing games, claw machines, Skee-Ball and air hockey, and a self-pour tap room upstairs for the adults. Our newest listing for it is from 2025, so walk past or call before you build a day around it.
• Champlain Centre in Plattsburgh pairs its cinema with an arcade, which makes a mall day work for a mixed group.

The Wild Center on a wet day

The Wild Center at 45 Museum Drive in Tupper Lake, about 57 road miles from the cabins, is a natural history museum on a 115-acre campus, and its main building holds a full rainy day. Indoors are the Climate Solutions exhibit, the Hall of the Adirondacks, the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address exhibit and Planet Adirondack, the Birdly flight simulator, animal encounters and live shows, and feature films every day in the Flammer Theater. The theater's signature film, The Wild Adirondacks, premiered in a new version on May 1, 2026: 17 minutes long, with four times the resolution of the original and new imagery by the photographer Carl Heilman II.

Hours change with the season. Through October 2026 the museum opens daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; from November to March it opens Fridays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it is closed on December 25 and January 1. Tickets were $28 for adults, $26 for seniors and the military, $15 for ages 5 to 17 and free for children 4 and under; the museum sells single-day timed tickets. On October 21 and 22, 2026, the indoor exhibits close for the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit and only the outdoor campus is open, so a rainy day those two dates is the wrong day to go. The Wild Walk and the trolls are outdoor exhibits, fine in a light drizzle with a rain jacket. The Wild Center guide has the full visit, including Tupper Lake for lunch.

Museums

Four museums within reach open on a fall or winter rainy day. The Lake Placid Olympic Museum, in the Olympic Center overlooking the speed skating oval, opens every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving and Christmas; adult tickets were $15, and the lot next door charges $2 an hour. In Saranac Lake, Historic Saranac Lake opened its restored Trudeau Building at 118 Main Street in August 2026, with exhibits in eight rooms on two floors; the first floor covers hunting, logging, guiding, great camps, grand hotels, the railroad and the Adirondack Park. It shares one campus and one ticket with the Saranac Laboratory Museum around the corner on Church Street; both open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all year, $12 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, under 8 free. The Akwesasne Cultural Center, 321 State Route 37 in Hogansburg, tells the community's story through images, objects and interactive displays below its library, and opens weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In Malone, the House of History opens by appointment, as above.

The summer museums are a plan for next year: the Almanzo Wilder Farm runs from Memorial Day weekend to September 30, the Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota opens in July and August, and the Adirondack Experience at Blue Mountain Lake ends its 2026 season on Monday, October 12. Every museum near the cabins keeps its own calendar, so check before you drive. The Malone history museum, Olympic sites and Wilder Homestead guides have the detail.

Libraries

Libraries are the quiet rainy-day plan: free, warm and with wifi. Hours below are as posted in October 2026; libraries close on public holidays and, in Malone, on school weather days.

The Saranac Lake Free Library keeps the William Chapman White Memorial Adirondack Research Room, open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a lunch break from 1 to 1:30, at no charge; book ahead if you want an archivist's help. Its collections include 3,500 glass plate negatives, 4,500 catalogued photographs and 1,200 lantern slides. The Lake Placid library sits a few steps from Mirror Lake and offers wifi printing and scanning from your own device. The Akwesasne Library opened in 1971 as the first Native American library east of the Mississippi River; it has sat upstairs from the museum since 1987 and offers public computers and free wifi.

Shopping

Lake Placid's Main Street

Main Street in Lake Placid is lined with independent shops; the tourism office's shopping guide notes that you will not find many chain stores there. Among the stores it names: Ruthie's Run for ski wear and Dale of Norway sweaters, The Bookstore Plus for books and craft supplies, Imagination Station for games and toys, Just Bead It, where you make your own jewelry from beads priced from five and ten cents, Adirondack Chocolates (made in Wilmington), Adirondack Popcorn Company, and outfitters such as Eastern Mountain Sports, High Peaks Cyclery and Lake Placid Ski and Board. Shops change, so walk the street and duck in where the door is open.

Saranac Lake

Downtown Saranac Lake is smaller and more local. The village's tourism site lists shops that sell everything from books and board games to paintings and pottery, including The Book Nook at 7A Broadway and the Side Quest Artist Collective at 23 Broadway. The Adirondack Artists Guild runs a co-op gallery at 52 Main Street, with opening receptions on the first Friday of the month. A rainy morning here pairs well with the Trudeau Building museum at 118 Main Street.

Plattsburgh's mall

For chain stores, the Champlain Centre at 60 Smithfield Boulevard in Plattsburgh has more than 50 stores, among them Target, Kohl's, JCPenney, Ross, Hobby Lobby and Dick's Sporting Goods, plus its cinema and arcade. It is about 59 road miles from the cabins, and the Plattsburgh guide has the city's museums and food.

The casino resort

The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, owned by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, is at 873 State Route 37 in Hogansburg, about 32 road miles from the cabins. Its website is for visitors 18 and older. It has a hotel and several restaurants. The Akwesasne Cultural Center is about three miles away on the same road.

Scenic drives in the rain

A drive is the right plan when the rain is light and the clouds sit on the hills, and three of the state's scenic byways are within reach of the cabins.

• The Adirondack Trail is NY 30, a 188-mile byway through the park. South of Malone it passes Meacham Lake and Paul Smiths on the way to Tupper Lake. Drive it to The Wild Center and you have a rainy-day outing with a museum at the end.
• The Olympic Trail, 170 miles, crosses the region from Keeseville on Lake Champlain past Whiteface and along the Ausable River to Lake Placid, then on past the Saranac lakes and Tupper Lake. The stretch through Wilmington Notch to Lake Placid is the one to drive; follow it with the Olympic Museum or a movie at the Palace.
• The Military Trail, 84 miles between Rouses Point and Massena, follows US 11 and NY 37 through Malone. East of Malone it runs through Chateaugay, Ellenburg Depot and Mooers Forks toward Lake Champlain; west of Malone it follows NY 37 through Fort Covington and Akwesasne.

Two rain notes. The Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway closes for the 2026 season on October 12, and on a cloudy day the summit view is gone anyway. And dirt roads near the cabins, such as the gravel access to the Elephant's Head trailhead, get soft in long rain; stay on paved roads. The fall foliage guide has the color drives in detail.

Short walks between the showers

A light rain under the trees still makes a fine walk. The High Falls walk in Titusville Mountain State Forest is about five road miles from the cabins and nearly level, a 1.5-mile round trip to a waterfall with a 30-foot drop. In Malone, the paved loop of about a mile at the recreation park and the Salmon River through the village make a short walk between errands. Skip open summits and fire towers until the weather clears; wet rock is slick, and the views are gone in cloud. The hiking guide has the hikes for the dry day after.

Sample rainy-day plans

A Malone day

Sleep in and make breakfast at the cabin. Drive the ten miles to Malone late in the morning, browse the Wead Library or its book sale, and book a House of History tour ahead if the history of the village interests you. Lunch in town (the dining page has the choices), bowl a few games at Lucky Strike Lanes in the afternoon, then shop for dinner on the way back and spend the evening by the stove or in the hot tub if the thunder has passed.

A Lake Placid day

Leave by 9 a.m. for the drive of about an hour and a quarter. Start with the Olympic Museum, which opens at 9:30 a.m., climb at Hi Notch from noon (Tuesday to Sunday), then walk Main Street's shops in the afternoon and catch the 3:30 p.m. weekend show or the 7 p.m. show at the Palace. Bowling and arcade games at Big Z's fill any gap. Fuel in Lake Placid for the drive back north.

A Tupper Lake day

Drive south on NY 30 to The Wild Center for its 10 a.m. opening and give it the whole morning: the exhibits, a film in the Flammer Theater and the Birdly flight. Lunch in Tupper Lake, a movie at the Adirondack State Theater in the afternoon, then home by Saranac Lake with a stop at the Saranac Lake Free Library or the Trudeau Building. Check the museum's winter schedule from November on, when it opens only Friday to Sunday.

What to bring for a rainy stay

• Rain jackets and waterproof shoes for each person, plus a second pair of shoes. The washer and dryer handle the rest.
• A card game or board game, and books or downloaded films, since the listings mention TV and wifi but no games.
• Cash for the Palace Theatre, which takes no cards.

The packing guide has the full list by season. For families, the cabins are for children 10 and up and teenagers, and the family stays page has its own short list of rainy-day plans; the week at the cabins post shows how to swap a wet day into a longer trip.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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2. Franklin County tourism (Always Franklin) alwaysfranklin.com/listing/lucky-strike-lanes
3. weadlibrary.com weadlibrary.com/
4. weadlibrary.com weadlibrary.com/about
5. franklinhistory.org franklinhistory.org/
6. plattsburghymca.org plattsburghymca.org/Malone/About-Malone
7. plattsburghymca.org plattsburghymca.org/Malone/Aquatics-FA
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24. The Wild Center wildcenter.org/visit/
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27. Adirondack Explorer adirondackexplorer.org/communities/historic-saranac-lake-opens-new-mus
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35. Saranac Lake tourism saranaclake.com/shopping
36. mohawkcasino.com mohawkcasino.com/
37. srmt-nsn.gov srmt-nsn.gov/news/amcr-holds-groundbreaking-ceremony-for-maple-steak-a
38. visitadirondacks.com visitadirondacks.com/what-to-do/scenic-byways
39. nysenate.gov nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/HAY/342-L
40. National Weather Service weather.gov/safety/lightning-safety
41. nccc.edu nccc.edu/calendar/index.php?eID=2022
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43. ADK Taste adktaste.com/adirondack-events/adirondack-artists-guild-sandra-hildret