At 4,098 feet, Cascade Mountain is the 36th-highest of the Adirondack 46 and among the most visited summits in the High Peaks, drawing tens of thousands of hikers each year. Its name traces to a landslide that divided a pond at the mountain's base shortly after 1860; the divided ponds were eventually renamed the Cascade Lakes for a waterfall descending the slope, and the mountain name followed. The first recorded ascent was made in 1872 by a trapper named Lon Pierce.
The standard route departs from a trailhead on Route 73 east of Lake Placid, climbing 1,940 feet over 2.4 miles to the open rocky summit. The trail gains elevation steadily, with the upper section featuring some scrambling across open ledges. Many hikers combine Cascade with neighboring Porter Mountain, adding a second 46er summit in a single outing for roughly a mile of extra distance.
The summit is bare and broad, with views spanning the High Peaks, Lake Champlain, and the Green Mountains of Vermont on clear days. Summer weekends and fall foliage weekends bring very heavy foot traffic, with trailhead parking often overflowing. Microspikes are essential in winter and early spring, when the rocky trail can be heavily iced. A longer replacement trail from the Mt. Van Hoevenberg trailhead is under construction; check conditions before visiting.
