Ausable Chasm is a beautiful gorge in upstate New York near Lake Champlain. It is one of New York state's oldest tourist attractions, and offers hiking, raft rides, and an "adventure course," also known as a via ferrata. Via ferratas are protected climbing routes and use a double-carabiner system attached to a harness to keep hikers/climbers from falling.
The via ferrata at Ausable Chasm is suitable for younger children. Nolan was 8 years old and absolutely loved doing the course. The only limitation he had was that he could not do the "cliff walk" during one part of the course, which was not a problem. We entered the park on the morning of July 3, and it was the most crowded day of the year.
We obtained our tickets and wristbands and followed the trail to the beginning of the via ferrata. We were outfitted with our harnesses and hard-hats, and were educated on the use of the carabiner system. In a nutshell, the rule is: only unlatch ONE carabiner at a time, so you always have one latched onto the steel cable at all times. In addition, one hand should always have contact with the cable or climbing surface at all times. We had to go around an entrance queue with a practice cable and prove we could follow the directions - it was surprising how many people could not consistently unlatch one carabiner at a time.
Dennis helped Matt and Nolan get into their harnesses. The boys practiced using the carabiner release mechanism.
Family photo before we began the adventure trail! The practice cable is behind us.
Nolan is attached to the practice cable, moving his hand along the cable and only releasing one carabiner at a time.
We alternated the kids with the adults, so we could supervise their use of the carabiner system. We climbed up a tall cargo net to the top of a rocky ledge.
Matt went up the cargo net first, with me behind him. The net was quite wobbly and I was glad to have the harness!
Nolan was small and it took him a while to scale the net. He did a fantastic job and made it up to the top with no problems.
We had to go around a few rocks, which made the ledge extremely narrow at some points!
We hiked along the narrow ledge until we came to a bridge. This was the point we had to separate, as Nolan was too young to do the cliff walk on the opposite side. He was a little upset at not being able to do it, but we will return when he is older so he can experience it, too (kids must be a minimum of 10 years to do the cliff walk portion of the via ferrata). Matt and Dennis crossed the bridge while Nolan and I continued down path on the same side of the chasm.
Matt crossed the bridge with no problem and looked like a pro!
Dennis followed Matt while I stayed with Nolan on the other side of the chasm.
Meanwhile, Nolan and I scaled down the smaller cliff on our side to meet up with the boys once they were done with the cliff-walk.
Nolan and I had a good seat to sit and watch Matt and Dennis do the cliff walk. It was really cool, and Matt was so proud of himself for conquering his fear of heights.
The cliff walk was quite long and there were some areas that required a tall reach. I am glad Nolan stayed on the other side, as I don't think he would have been able to reach the higher hand-holds. Matthew and Dennis had a blast!
Nolan climbed up the ledge again and we were nearly at the meeting spot.
It was fun to hang out with my little adventurer - he definitely wants to come back to do this again!
It wasn't long until Matt and Dennis returned to our side of the chasm.
Once Dennis and Matt were back on this side of the gorge, the entire family continued on with our guide to the rope bridge and final ladder-style bridge. The views of the chasm were beautiful from this vantage point.
The rope bridge was probably the "scariest" part of crossing the chasm. Nolan and Matt were completely unfazed and declared it "cool."
The view of the chasm was very pretty and few people take this route to see it from this angle.
We crossed the final ladder bridge to the end of the course.
The steps were very wide for Nolan and Matt! It was really cool to see the river rushing below.
After our via ferrata tour, we hiked back along the main trail and took in views of the waterfalls. We went to the visitor center for lunch, then hiked back to the raft ride entrance.
The view of the main waterfalls was very nice, and we enjoyed checking out different vantage points.
The raft ride offers two options: a larger raft and individual tubes. While the tubes looked really cool, I am glad we selected the larger raft option. There is a small "rapids" area (very low grade) and people in the individual tubes must get out of the tubes and walk around the rapids. The rest of the river is so slow many people spent a long time sitting in their tubes. The raft ride was a little faster, came with a guide full of fun facts, and went through the rapids section (a hit with the boys).
The rafts are lowered from the top of the chasm, and the mechanism is fun to watch.
We hopped into the raft and started out backwards, but the raft guide quickly turned us around to face the proper direction!
The water was extremely calm here. People in the individual tubes were barely moving. Fortunately we had a guide with a paddle... and facts.
I didn't get any pictures in the section with the rapids as I didn't want the camera to get wet. The rapids are extremely small, but still very fun for the kids. We'll have to try a white water rafting trip in the future!
We reached the end of the raft tour and the rafts were taken out of the river to waiting trucks, so they could be transported back to the start of the rafting course. We hopped on the trolley for a ride back to the visitor's center.
The trolley dropped us off at an area with a small waterfall, and we walked the short trail to get back to the visitor's center.
We stopped to admire one of the original wooden boats that used to take people down the chasm.
We were tired from our long and exciting day, and drove back to Plattsburgh to have dinner at the Butcher's Block. The food was good and we settled into bed before beginning the next leg of our journey!
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