Carry Falls Reservoir: Family fun in all seasons

Raquette River spot in Colton offers sandy beach, scenic hikes

By Betsy Kepes

Carry Falls, the largest reservoir on the Raquette River, is a great place to take small children to hike and play. The wide trail that begins at a gravel parking lot on Route 56 is easy enough for a toddler, with big yellow birch and hemlock to duck behind while playing hide and seek. 

It’s less than a mile to walk to Carry Falls Reservoir, a wide-open destination with views of the small peaks of the northwestern Adirondacks, and glimpses of some of the higher peaks to the southeast.

But toddlers care more about the sand than the view. By late summer the water level in Carry Falls, which can vary by 20 feet, is low enough to reveal long stretches of sandy beach. When I took my 2-year-old granddaughter there in August we waded in the warm water before settling in to build a sandcastle. When I brought her again in October, after a series of dry weeks, we had to walk through thick mud to get to the water. But getting muddy is its own kind of fun. 

I have a friend who likes to take her boys to Carry Falls in early summer, when the water in the reservoir is so high it laps against the woods. Her kids, who sunburn easily, play in the shallow water and are shaded by the big trees behind them. They named their special place Tadpole Beach.

For families with older children there’s a small mountain to climb, a miniature Catamount. When I was a kid, Catamount still had a fire tower on top, staffed by Mr. McCarthy. He gave everyone who climbed up the mountain, and then up the tall tower, a personalized “I climbed Catamount” card. He even gave one to our puppy, Frodo, who had to be carried down the steep steps by my father.

The tower is gone now, and also the log cabin where Mr. McCarthy stayed, though in the spring the flowers he planted by the front steps still bloom. There’s a great view to the north of some of the other reservoirs along the Raquette and to the flat land of the St. Lawrence Valley. To get a bigger view without the tower, hikers need to do a short bushwhack to the other side of the summit. From there it becomes clear how large Carry Falls reservoir is, a 3,000 acre lake that stretches south to meet the Jordan River. If it is a clear day, hikers can see the symmetrical cone of Whiteface and the High Peaks south of it, a thrilling sight for those of us who live in the foothills.

For ambitious families, or adults who’d like an easy adventure, the hike up and down Catamount plus the short trail to the beach totals 2.7 miles. It’s easy to add on more mileage by running up and down the beach with pails of water or strolling along the shore looking at bird tracks and picking up interesting stones and pieces of driftwood.

The most difficult part of this adventure is telling the kids it’s time to go home.