Upper Wolfjaw Mountain sits at 4,185 feet in the heart of the Great Range, flanked by Armstrong Mountain to the southwest and Lower Wolfjaw to the northeast. The peak takes its name from landscape artist Alexander Helwig Wyant, who around 1870 observed that the two Wolfjaw summits together resembled an open jaw in profile. It ranks 29th among the Adirondack High Peaks and is most commonly visited as part of a longer Great Range traverse that includes Armstrong and Gothics.
The standard approach begins at the Garden trailhead in Keene Valley, following the Phelps Trail 3.1 miles to the DEC Interior Outpost, then crossing the suspension bridge over Johns Brook and picking up the ADK Range Trail southward. The trail steepens noticeably after the junction with the Woodsfall Trail, climbs through switchbacks, passes a false summit, dips into a col, and arrives at the true summit roughly 0.9 miles beyond the notch between the two Wolfjaws. Round-trip distance from the Garden is about 12 miles with approximately 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Full route details are on AllTrails.
The summit itself is partially wooded, but short side trails nearby open onto lookouts with good views of the surrounding peaks. On the northwestern slope, several rock slides offer additional vantage points; the uppermost, the Skinny Slide, formed during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. High Peaks trails are typically muddy from mid-April through Memorial Day, and the Rock slides can be icy well into spring.
