If you are looking for an interesting destination in the Adirondacks of New York and you’re near the Lake George area, Natural Stone Bridge and Caves is an excellent place to spend a few hours exploring.

You get to see the largest marble cave interest in the east and in the process take a trip along the river where other caves and interesting formations are easily accessible. It’s a good trip for anyone with children and even for those without, especially if you enjoy caves and geology.

How to find it

The Natural Stone Bridge and Caves is located in Pottersville, NY. The easiest way to get there is to take the New York State Northway (Interstate 87) and get off of exit 26 on to Stone Bridge Road. From there it’s about 2 miles on the road to the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves.

The bridge and caves are about 25 minutes or so north of Lake George, an hour or so from Lake Placid and about an hour and a half from Albany.

There’s plenty of free parking available when you reach the site and the upper portion of the site, including the parking lots and the visitor center/gift shop are accessible for handicapped people.

What’s there?

You first come into the Visitor’s Center and gift shop. If you don’t feel like going on the entire tour (or you cannot as there are lots of steps and some climbing around involved) you can stay here and watch a video on the site and browse the gift shop. For those who want to go on the tour though, this is where you buy your tickets and then head out along the river.

The self-guided tour makes its way along the river with various interpretive stops along the way. Each stop is labeled and refers to a numbered stop on your guide that you are given. There are also plenty of benches for those who want to rest or just relax and enjoy the scenery.

The tour is about three quarters of a mile long and lets you see a number of different things along the way including glacial potholes in the marble, a marble gorge and in places you can descend into small caves along the river and see underground waterfalls. The tour finally ends up at the large marble arch and after that you return back to the gift shop and visitors center.

For the more adventuresome there is an “Adventure Tour” where you are lead by cavers into the cave. You’ll get to crawl and squirm and even swim in the caves. These are guided tours and you have to get reservations for it.

There are also a number of different activities for kids who may not find the river tour all that interesting. They include a couple of different mining activities (where you “mine” for various geodes and other crystals) and a rock climbing wall. These all cost extra of course.

There’s a small snack bar in the visitors center where you can get drinks and snacks should you get hungry while exploring the caves.

Finally for those of us who really love rocks, there is a fairly expansive rock shop here. You can browse through opened geodes, various crystals and tons of other rocks, crystals and minerals. There are also some books on geology, minerals and the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves in there.

Experiences

My partner and I went to the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves when we were last visiting the Lake George area. We had planned about a half day for the trip and between the travel and the time we spent there, I’d expect most people would need about the same.

We arrived after a quick drive from Lake George and took the self-guided tour of the river and the marble arch. It was fun and interesting and both of us having a geology background, I think we appreciated it a bit more than the average visitor. We both enjoyed the small caves along the river you could go into and in places see underground waterfalls and standing underneath the large marble arch was very impressive.

I wish the adventure tours were available then, as they have just been recently added. I would have jumped at the chance to take a more rugged and wild tour of the caves.

But even without the Adventure Tour, we enjoyed ourselves. We took our time on the tour, stopping at each marked interpretive site and reading our guides. We also spent a lot of time taking in the tour between those interpretive sites as we found plenty of interesting things to look at and explore.

When we were finished with the tour we headed back to the Visitors Center where we went through the small Adirondack Memories Museum that offered some exhibits and information on the Pottersville area and the history of the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves. When we were done there we visited the gift shop and the rock shop (and I’ll admit left with at least one back of souvenirs and rocks) and had a snack at the snack bar before we headed back to Lake George.

All in all I really enjoyed my visit to the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves because there’s nothing else really like it in the Adirondacks and because it was interesting place. The tour is well put together and fun to travel along. Not only that, you’ll probably learn a thing or two about the geology and the glacial history of the Adirondacks while you’re there. The area also had plenty of other activities to keep everyone interested should the kids not want to go on the tour or if you wanted to let your kids do other things.

I know I’ll probably end up going back, even if it’s just to try out the Adventure Tour that they are offering.

Final Thoughts

Natural Stone Bridge and Caves is a great stop for anyone vacationing in the Adirondack Park, especially in the Lake George area. The area is unlike anything else in the Adirondacks and well worth a stop. You’ll learn about geology and the ice ages as you make your way along the river past various glacial potholes, marble gorges and underground waterfalls. For kids there’s plenty to do beyond the tour including the chance for them to mine their own ‘gemstones.’

If you are adventuresome, check out the Adventure Tour where you will suit up and make your way through the caves.

Overall this is a great place to spend several hours and is well worth the ticket price.

Recommended: Yes

Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug