Last weekend was Labor Day Weekend, and when our group drove to and from Whiteface Mountain I noticed how many cars were on the roads. The number of people and the variety of different accents and languages I heard just on Whiteface indicated that it was a peak tourist weekend in the Adirondacks. I imagine that Main Street in Lake Placid, and downtown areas of other popular tourist attractions, were very busy for the entire three day weekend.
However, on Wednesday morning, Amelia and I went to explore a thrift shop in Keene and were told by the shop owner that she was leaving for a couple of hours because "tourist season" was over. First of all, the fact that the store owner let Amelia and I shop on our own with no one running the shop made me realize how much trust there is in this Adirondack community. Secondly, it was surprising that tourist season was so decidedly "over" only two days after the craziness of Labor Day.
We have talked a little bit about how the wealth of towns like Keene and Lake Placid is due partially to the presence of seasonal residents who have second homes in the Adirondacks, and bring business to the Park in the summer months, and maybe a bit in the winter during ski season. It is easy to forget about the long spring and fall months between tourist season. Since so many towns are reliant on tourism, I wonder how the need for more summer and winter visitors plays into the fight to protect the Adirondack landscape. It is easy to criticize tourist attractions like ski resorts and the road on Whiteface, but I can also imagine how they would drastically improve the economies of Adirondack towns. Because the Park is a blend of wilderness and towns, I wonder if there is a way to compromise the protection of the natural landscape with sustaining the livelihoods of these communities.
I wonder how many tourist seasons there are. I know that things slow down a lot after Labor Day, and that some businesses close until next summer, but there's also another spike of tourism for the 3 weeks or so when fall leaf color is at its peak. Just try to find a parking spot at the trailheads of any of the major mountains on sunny fall day! I'm sure November and December are very bleak, though, as are April and May.
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