Whiteface Mountain is one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains and the fifth-highest mountain in the U.S. state of New York. The summit of the mountain provides a 360 degrees view of the surrounding Adirondacks and on a clear day, one can see the Green Mountains in Vermont, and even some of the skyscrapers in Montreal, Canada about eighty miles in the distance.

Whiteface is located in Wilmington, New York just 13 miles from Lake Placid. In fact, the east slope of Whiteface has a major ski area which hosted the alpine skiing competitions of the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Whiteface has a seasonal motor road to a developed parking area and Whiteface Castle visitors center at elevation 4600 feet. The remaining 267 feet can be walked on a rail lined rock trail called the Stairway Ridge Trail about .2 miles long, or one can opt to take a 424 foot tunnel into the core of the mountain where at the end of the tunnel, there is an elevation rising 276 feet to the summit.

Designed and begun prior to the Great Depression, Whiteface Castle and the Memorial Highway were funded entirely by the state of New York, partly under the misconception that the construction was Depression era public works projects arising from Roosevelt′s New Deal. Construction began in 1929 at a cost of 1.2 million dollars and officially opened on July 20, 1935 and dedicated to veterans of the Great War.

The highway is five miles long and has an average grade of 8 percent and is open to the public from May to October.

Arriving at the base of the mountain, I stop at an impressive toll booth structure.