The Wild Center in Tupper Lake

The Wild Center is the natural history museum of the Adirondacks, on a 115-acre campus beside the Raquette River in Tupper Lake, about 57 road miles from the cabins, an hour and a half by car. Its Wild Walk climbs from the forest floor into the treetops, river otters swim at Otter Falls indoors, and trails, guided canoe trips and a winter light show fill the grounds. It opens daily from late May through October and Friday to Sunday in winter, and Tupper Lake adds a short fire tower climb and a free public observatory to the same trip.

What the Wild Center is

The museum began as an idea in August 1998, when a group of friends talked it over at a cabin on the shore of Long Lake. The state Board of Regents gave the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks a provisional charter in February 1999, and Tupper Lake voters chose to donate a 31-acre site on the Raquette River for it. The architects were Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum. Ground was broken in July 2004 in front of 1,500 supporters, Governor George Pataki among them, and the museum opened under its new name, The Wild Center, on July 4, 2006, with more than 5,000 people there. By then 5,237 donors had given $28.3 million.

It was the first LEED-certified museum in New York. The building has a green roof, a boiler that burns wood pellets made in the North Country, and a large solar array on one of its buildings. In 2013 a group of donors bought 50 neighboring acres and gave them to the center, and the Adirondack Club gave 34 more in 2017, which brought the campus to 115 acres. Inside are 54,000 square feet of exhibit halls.

The readers' poll run by USA Today's 10Best ranked it the best science museum in the country in 2024, and it was nominated again in 2026, the fourth year running. The center welcomed its millionth visitor in July 2017 and its two-millionth on September 7, 2026, during its 20th season. That summer, with the trolls described below, it drew more than 160,000 visitors in 12 weeks, the busiest stretch in its history. Tupper Lake is in Franklin County, the same county as the cabins.

The Wild Walk

The Wild Walk opened on July 4, 2015, after eight years of planning. It was designed by Chip Reay, a member of the museum's original design team. It is a trail of more than 1,000 feet of bridges and platforms that starts at ground level and rises gradually until you are 40 feet above the forest floor. Side paths, swinging bridges and stairs give you choices along the way, but the whole main route, from the trail into Feeder Alley to the viewing pod on the last tower, was built so that everyone can reach the top. Along the way are:

• a four-story treehouse built of twigs;
• swinging suspension bridges between the platforms;
• a giant spider's web hung 24 feet off the ground, which you can climb out onto and jump in;
• the Snag, a four-story replica of a dead tree, wide enough for a stairway inside;
• at the highest point, a bald eagle's nest 10 feet across, modeled on the largest one ever found in nature, 40 feet up and looking over the Oxbow pond toward the Seward Range, with Whiteface Mountain in view.

The accessible route is a paved path of about a quarter mile from the main parking lot up to the eagle's nest. The Society of American Registered Architects recognized the walk's design and construction, and the Museum Association of New York gave its exhibits an Award of Merit for innovation in interpretation.

The Wild Walk has stayed open in past winters, with a snowball-throwing range and photo spots on the platforms, and in 2026-27 it is lit for the Wild Lights evenings described below. In cold weather the bridges can be slippery, so wear boots with a good grip.

The animals inside

Three river otters live at Otter Falls, where you can watch them swim, eat and play, and an underground passage links the exhibit to their outdoor dens. Porcupines serve as ambassador animals. Stickley was born in May 2007; a dog separated her from her mother when she was two weeks old, and she was bottle-fed at the center for two months. Bianca, an albino porcupine, arrived in the fall of 2020 after she was live-trapped as a nuisance animal, and she lost a hind leg to a serious injury. Common ravens, eastern screech owls, American kestrels, snakes, turtles, frogs, toads and several kinds of fish make up the rest of the collection, and an animal viewing window lets you watch the staff's daily care of the animals.

Staff programs run through the day: live animal encounters, otter talks at Otter Falls, Creature Features and Tours of the Tanks. The times change from day to day, so check the day's schedule when you arrive and plan the otters around it. Back at the cabins, the wildlife watching guide covers the animals you may see around the pond.

Exhibits and films

The exhibit halls include the Hall of the Adirondacks, the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address and Planet Adirondack, which opened in the summer of 2012 as the first of NOAA's Science on a Sphere globes in New York State. Climate Solutions, a 3,000-square-foot exhibition that took two years to make, opened in 2022 and covers energy, food, the natural world and climate action through people in the region working on them. Much of it is built from reused material: the phones in its storytelling stations came from local thrift stores, the wall panels are recycled pallet wood, and the counter in its Tinkering Studio was a bowling alley lane. The Museum Association of New York gave it an award for excellence in design.

The film in the William H. Flammer Panorama Theater is new for 2026. The Wild Adirondacks has been the museum's main film since it opened in 2006, and the original creative team remade it for the 20th anniversary with time-lapses and stills from more than two decades of work by the photographer Carl Heilman II. The new version premiered on May 1, 2026. It runs 17 minutes at four times the visual resolution of the original, it is included with admission, and captions are available.

Birdly is a virtual reality flight simulator. You strap onto a platform wearing 3D goggles and flap your arms as wings to fly over landscapes. In 2026 it cost $6, or $5 for members; riders must be at least 55 inches tall and no more than 350 pounds, and tickets are sold at the Coffee Bar.

Trails and the Raquette River

The campus runs down to the Raquette River, and a self-guided trail leads through the woods to the Oxbow, the bend of the river where the canoe trips start; that trail is not wheelchair accessible. The Fen Trail is a loop of about a mile with a compacted gravel surface and gentle grades, built to accessibility standards. Along it is the Raquette River Roll, a set of ball runs made from natural materials where you send wooden balls down through the landscape; it opened in 2024, and reach extenders are available for it. A gravel path circles Greenleaf Pond, which the café's terrace overlooks.

Three outdoor pieces are worth the detour. Forest Music is a quarter-mile loop through a stand of old Scotch pines with 24 speakers that blend music with birdsong, insects and wind; three students and graduates of SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music composed its pieces from original music and found sounds, and it opened in May 2023. Stickwork is a 20-foot sculpture titled Hopscotch that the artist Patrick Dougherty and more than 100 volunteers wove from locally sourced maple saplings over about three weeks in 2021. The Pines Wild Play Area is a playground in the woods made entirely of natural materials, with a comfortable spot for adults to sit while children play.

Canoe and kayak trips

Guided trips on the Raquette leave from the Wild Center's dock on the Oxbow, a third of a mile from the parking lot. Every trip has a New York State licensed guide and a Wild Center naturalist, covers about a mile of river in about an hour at an easy pace, and passes through marsh habitat; guides point out meat-eating plants, kingfishers diving into the water and turtles sunning in the distance. A canoe holds up to three adults, or two adults and up to two children aged 4 to 12, and kayaks hold one; each trip takes four canoes and five kayaks. In 2026 canoes were $50 and kayaks $30, or $40 and $20 for members, and admission is a separate ticket.

Children 4 and up are welcome. Children from 4 to 15 must have an adult with them, with at least one adult for every three children, and the cutoff to reserve a boat is 12:15 p.m. on the day of the trip. Trips go rain or shine, but severe weather or high wind can postpone or cancel them, with a refund or a transfer. In 2026 they left at 1 p.m. on Sundays in June, daily from July 1 to September 7, and on weekends from September 19 to October 11. The schedule changes each year, so check the next season's dates before you plan around one.

The trolls of 2026

For its 20th season the center brought in TROLLS: Save the Humans, six giant troll sculptures by the Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo, built from reclaimed wood and other found materials and set out across the campus from June 1 to October 31, 2026. Among them are Ronja Redeye, the leader, Rosa Sunfinger, who keeps flowers in a pot made from a real car, and Ibbi Pip, who puts up birdhouses. The show drew visitors from all 50 states and 13 countries, and the six traveling trolls move on after October.

A seventh troll stays. Patrick Sapling, unveiled in September 2026, is named for Patrick Dougherty, the artist behind Stickwork. It is the first permanent Dambo troll in New York and the artist's 191st giant troll: a wooden figure kneeling in a forest clearing with its eyes closed and its arms raised, lifting a living sugar maple sapling toward the sun. About 200 boulders rescued from a local excavator's property ring it in a circle where visitors can sit and play. Dambo's team built it with community volunteers from salvaged lumber, cedar scraps from area lumberyards and sawmills, local branches and donated hardwood, on a steel frame from North Country businesses.

Winter at the Wild Center

From November through March the center opens Friday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it closes on December 25 and January 1. It has also opened every day during Holiday Week, December 26 to 31, and during Winter Week in mid-February, which ran from February 13 to 22 in 2026. Winter brings its own activities, included with admission: snowshoes and kicksleds, the traditional Scandinavian push sleds, to borrow free for the trails, and ice fishing with a guide on Greenleaf Pond when the ice allows, from 1 to 3 p.m. during Winter Week. Otter talks and Creature Features run through the day.

Wild Lights

Wild Lights turns the campus into a light show on winter evenings and needs its own ticket. For 2026-27 it runs on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 8 p.m. from November 27, 2026 to February 27, 2027, and every night during Holiday Week, December 26 to 31, and Winter Week, February 12 to 20; it is closed on January 1. Thousands of lights cover the Wild Walk and Stickwork, lit archways stand in the parking lot, music and sound play along the quarter-mile Forest Music trail, and there are fire pits with Adirondack chairs on the patio, hot cocoa and s'mores, with the indoor exhibits open too. A visit takes 60 to 90 minutes and a little under a mile of walking. The trails have safety lights, but bring a flashlight or headlamp for the darker stretches, and traction devices or a walking stick in case of ice.

Tickets for 2026-27 are $15 for adults and $10 for ages 5 to 17, free for children 4 and under, and $10 and $5 for members. Reservations are encouraged but not required, and winter weather can make the trails hard going for wheelchairs. Wild Lights began in 2020 with 60,000 bulbs and drew more than 13,000 visitors that first winter. The drive home afterward is about an hour and a half in the dark; read the winter driving guide first.

Hours and tickets

The Wild Center keeps a seasonal schedule, and it shifts a little from year to year. These were the hours in 2026; check the center's own site before you go.

Admission is by timed ticket: you choose an entry window, arrive any time within it, and stay as long as you like until closing. Buy online ahead of time, especially for a weekend, since weekends often sell out. In 2026 tickets were $28 for adults 18 to 64, $26 for seniors 65 and over and military, $15 for ages 5 to 17, and free for children 4 and under and for members. Canoe trips, Birdly and Wild Lights cost extra.

Lunch at the Waterside Café

The Waterside Café serves hot and cold dishes and grab-and-go food, and it has offered full lunch service from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It has tables inside and on a covered terrace over Greenleaf Pond. About 22 percent of its food comes from local vendors, it has dropped single-use plastic drink containers, and its food waste is composted. There is also a Coffee Bar, where Birdly tickets are sold.

Accessibility and dogs

The main building and the exhibit hall follow universal design and work for wheelchairs and strollers. Manual wheelchairs, walkers and motorized scooters are lent free at Visitor Services, first come, first served, in limited numbers, and so are wagons and strollers. The paved path to the Wild Walk, the Wild Walk itself and the gravel path around Greenleaf Pond are ADA accessible, and the Fen Trail is built to accessibility standards. Forest Music is accessible but can be hard going for some visitors, and the Oxbow Trail is not accessible. The restrooms have changing tables, a Mamava lactation pod sits off the main entrance in the Great Hall, and the theater films have captions. For anything specific, the center answers accessibility questions by phone and email before you go.

Dogs cannot come along. Only service animals are allowed while the center is open, Wild Lights included, and you should tell the ticket booth when you arrive with one. For days out with a dog, see bringing your dog.

Getting there from the cabins

The Wild Center is at 45 Museum Drive in Tupper Lake, about 57 road miles from the cabins and an hour and a half by car. Leave on the county roads for County Route 25, pick up NY 30 and stay on it heading south for about 45 miles, past Meacham Lake and Paul Smiths. NY 3 joins NY 30 for the last 4.5 miles into Tupper Lake; turn onto Hosley Avenue, County Route 44, and follow it to Museum Drive.

On busy weekends the lots fill. Overflow parking is at L.P. Quinn Elementary School, 294 Hosley Avenue, on Saturdays and Sundays only, with a quarter-mile walking path to the campus. The drive to Lake Placid shares the road as far as Paul Smiths and then splits off on NY 86, so the Olympic venues make a separate day; see the Lake Placid Olympic venues guide.

A day from the cabins

A summer or fall weekday is the easiest time to go, because weekend tickets sell out. This plan pairs the center with Mount Arab.

In winter, come on a Friday or Saturday: snowshoe or kicksled the trails in the afternoon, eat early and stay for Wild Lights at 5 p.m. On the first and third Fridays of the month, the Adirondack Sky Center's free stargazing starts about half an hour after sunset if the sky is clear, which means a late drive home. For a shorter day, skip Mount Arab and stop at Paul Smith's College's Visitor Interpretive Center on the way back; its trails are open from dawn to dusk and free outside the ski season.

Mount Arab and the Tupper Lake Triad

Mount Arab is the short fire tower climb west of Tupper Lake, about 11 road miles from the Wild Center. From the junction of NY 3 and NY 30 in the village, follow NY 3 toward Piercefield for about 7.25 miles, turn left on Conifer Road for nearly 2 miles, then left on Mount Arab Road for about a mile. The trailhead is on the left, and the parking area is roomy and plowed in winter.

The trail climbs 750 feet in about a mile to the 2,545-foot summit, 2 miles round trip. It is moderately steep with a few short, steeper pitches, and numbered trees along the way match an interpretive guide. About halfway up, a large boulder sits at the top of a steeper section; near 0.8 mile the trail passes a small cliff, and soon after it comes out on the semi-open summit. An observation station was set up on the summit in 1912, and the 35-foot steel tower went up in 1918; the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Friends of Mount Arab restored it. The old observer's cabin beside the tower is a small museum the Friends run, and in summer the Friends have hired stewards to staff the summit and talk about the tower and the mountain.

Mount Arab is one of the three short peaks of the Tupper Lake Triad. The others are Coney Mountain, 2,265 feet, a 2.2-mile round trip with 548 feet of climbing, and Goodman Mountain, 2,178 feet, a 3.4-mile round trip with 581 feet of climbing, named for the civil rights activist Andrew Goodman. Hike all three between March 21 and December 19 for the summer patch, or between December 20 and March 20 for the winter patch, then register with the regional tourism office online or by mail for $10; the patch can take up to three weeks to arrive. In winter, carry microspikes for icy trails and snowshoes for deep snow. Mount Arab also counts toward the Adirondack Fire Tower Challenge.

The Adirondack Sky Center

The Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory is a nonprofit that runs free public stargazing at its roll-off roof observatory at 178 Big Wolf Road, near Little Wolf Beach, about 5 road miles from the Wild Center. The roof slides back to open the sky, and the observatory has four permanently mounted telescopes and several portable ones, run by volunteers. Sessions have been held every Friday from Memorial Day to Labor Day and on the first and third Fridays of the month the rest of the year, starting about half an hour after sunset. The weather decides, so check the Sky Center's Facebook page, where it posts the night's call. Private sessions have cost $150 for up to 20 people.

In the village, the Sky Center's Astronomy Hub at 68 Park Street has been open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and its digital portable planetarium puts on shows there and visits schools. The group is working toward a permanent planetarium with more than 60 seats at the observatory. For stargazing on your own in Tupper Lake, good open spots are Moody Bridge on the NY 30 causeway, Rock Island Bay on NY 30 before Bog River Falls, and the open rock summit of Coney Mountain.

For the night sky at the cabins, one guest at The Aviator left this tip in a review:

It gets really dark in Malone, especially this property, so make sure to turn off all the lights at some point and look up at the stars.

See stargazing from the hot tub for what to look for.

The rail trail in Tupper Lake

Tupper Lake is the western end of the Adirondack Rail Trail, 34 miles of former rail line to Lake Placid by way of Lake Clear and Saranac Lake. Construction finished in the fall of 2025, and the whole trail is open all year. Its surface is densely packed stone dust with a typical grade of 2 percent and never more than 5, gentle enough for most walkers and riders, and about 2 miles through Saranac Lake village are paved. In Tupper Lake the trailhead is the large, paved and plowed Washington Street parking area, and the section from Floodwood into town is 8.5 miles; Lake Clear to Floodwood adds another 9.4.

The trail is open to walkers, cyclists, snowshoers and cross-country skiers, to Class 1 e-bikes, which are pedal-assist only with no throttle and help up to 20 miles an hour, and to snowmobiles in winter; see snowmobiling from the cabin door for the trail network. The Saint Regis Canoe Area guide covers the trail's Lake Clear section and the paddling beside it.

On the way home

NY 30 passes Paul Smith's College's Visitor Interpretive Center, about 31 road miles from the cabins, and Saranac Lake is 12 miles beyond it on NY 86, about 43 miles from the cabins; the Saranac Lake and Paul Smith's guide covers both. For another family day, the Olympic venues in Lake Placid have rides and skating, and in December Santa's Workshop, closed through the summer and fall of 2026, reopens for holiday weekends from late November 2026. The family stays page covers the cabins for a family of four, and book direct has the ways to reserve. The cabins themselves are not suitable for children under 10, per their listings' house rules, so a family with small children will need to stay elsewhere for this 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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