Region
Highlights
- Dix Mountain is the sixth highest peak in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Park.
- The slides on Dix give it a distinctive look.
- While it stands somewhat south of the main High Peaks region and is more difficult to reach, the steep and challenging climb is popular with hikers not only due to its inclusion in the Adirondack 46ers challenge but for the open views of the region from its summit.
- Dix is also the gateway to four other High Peaks in the Dix Range, all of them, unlike Dix itself, officially trail-less: Hough, Macomb, Carson Peak, and Grace Peak. One of the most difficult Adirondack peak challenges is to do all 5 in the same day; most hikers prefer to break the trips up into separate assaults.
- Most popular route is to climb Dix from the south by taking the Elk Lake Trail toward Hunters Pass, where a spur leads up to Dix.
- A less popular route is a lengthy northern ascent starting from the Ausable Club in St. Huberts.
Routes
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
14 summits • 19.3 mi • 4,832 ft gain • 14 hr 3 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
10 summits • 15.3 mi • 5,022 ft gain • 10 hr 48 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
6 summits • 15.0 mi • 3,167 ft gain • 24 hr 40 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
2 summits • 14.1 mi • 4,028 ft gain • 10 hr 47 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
1 summit • 14.6 mi • 4,655 ft gain • 11 hr 57 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
1 summit • 18.9 mi • 5,014 ft gain • 15 hr 50 min
/-73.7865188,44.0822884,11,0.00,0.00/320x240@2x?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoicGVha2VyeSIsImEiOiJjampra3Z0bnAxeTVnM3FteHlybHY3b2p1In0.7a5dEa5-995VUv8ceHHNmw)
1 summit • 24.4 mi • 6,917 ft gain • 31 hr 46 min
Latest summits

"Becca and I hiked 21 miles from the car, around the loop, and back. With the rock slide on Macomb, and the steep faces of South Dix, and the 15 miles logged the previous day, this was one of my most dangerous hikes to date!" — mikebenjamin • Sep 6, 2020
"A quick one-day trip up to the Dacks to do the Dix range for Tom’s 46r quest. The last two miles of Elk Lake road leading to the normal PA was closed so we had 4+ miles of road walking added to our day. A stray shower came in as we were nearing the Beck-Horn so we were basically soaked while trying to enjoy the view. With the nice gust that appeared to blow the shower away had us shivering until we got a jacket on. The season quickly went from summer to fall instantly. Fortunately the sun came back out to share the sky with some clouds so the rest of our romp on the Range was delightful with comfortable temps. " — Nimblefoot • Aug 19, 2020

"Dix Range – 5 peaks in about 13.5 hours total time and 19.1 total miles.
With: Jeff, Meenu, and John. The day started with a midnight leave time for our 3.5 hour drive, and a 4:45 am start to the hiking day. The drive was interrupted for a little bit when we saw some stuff in the road and then realized a person was flagging us down. Turns out he (and a younger guy who was the passenger) had fallen asleep and flipped their truck on the side of the road (which we hadn’t seen until we stopped). We called 911 and helped them a little – luckily both guys had gotten out of the truck and were walking around and seemed relatively ok although with bleeding cuts all over. I got a mylar blanket out of my emergency pack and wrapped it around the younger guy who was freezing. The state troopers showed up in not too long and we were able to get on our way. Hopefully they both were ok.
Back on our way, we were doing a traverse, so met up with our friend John at one the Route 73 end point of our hike where we left his car and drove over to the Elk Lake Road start point. Because the Elk Lake parking lot is closed we had to park 2 miles down the road at the Clear Pond lot (which was full already, ..." — kvander • Aug 1, 2020

"A beautiful Fall hike to the summit of Dix via the Round Pond trail. We chose the slide instead of the trail and enjoyed a warm, sunny climb. The last portion after the slide was twisty ans steep with fresh ice on the trail from the melting trees above. Beautiful hike." — deb-and-rob • Oct 5, 2019

"Wow,, Now that was a long day On the trail with buddy 46er Matt Peacock,, Hiking and climbing all 5 mountains that make up the Dix Range In the Adirondacks Park New York State. Epic day with okay views. Day was hot and humid on the trails but warm breezy on the summits which in return kept the bugs to a minimum,, Met up with about a dozen other friendly like minded hikers along the trail and one older gentlemen who was a little off course which I'm hoping we got him on the right track,, All and all, great day with perfect company doing what we love,, #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 towards my 46er journey " — ramjet1963 • Jul 19, 2019

"This was a fantastic weekend
My wife Brigitte and I wanted to do the Dix Range.
We were lucky to find parking on a sunday afternoon at the Elk Lake Lodge.
Our first afternoon hike took us to our camp site at Lilian Brooke.
The following monday morning we started at 7h00am.
Our itineray was to start the ascension of Macomb via the slides.
The ascent was difficult but the view was amazing. Upon arriving at the top we saw a few hikers.
2 of them (Jimmy and Don) did the next 2 summits with us: South-Dix and Grace.
We really enjoyed their company and we had a similar pace which was great.
After Grace we parted ways. They head back down as Brigitte and I continued to Hough peak.
We had read it was going to be though and it was true. We arrive at its summit around 3h30pm.
Looking at what we still had to hike to get to Dix was impressive.
Around 5h30pm we arrived at the summit of Dix...
We started our descent around 6h00pm after saying goodbye to this magnificient view.
We choose to go down via Hunter's pass even though it was going to take us longer. We knew that this path was easier then by the Beckhorn.
We finally arrived at our camp site (Lilian Brooke) around 9h00pm...." — CPaquin • Aug 20, 2018

"Couldn't have asked for a better day to walk across the Dix Range. The best and final summit of the day. I felt like I was standing on top of the world. It was rewarding to look out and see how far I had made it throughout the day. Yet, humbling to see how far I had yet to go to make it back to camp at Slide Brook. I descending down Hunter's Pass and made it back just as the last of the light faded." — Right-On • Jul 29, 2017

"Trip report from the whole Dix Range traverse, included on all five logs:
On Tuesday the 6th, Mom and I drove up to the Elk Lake parking lot and hiked in to the Slide Brook Lean-to. We got in sometime early evening and had the place to ourselves! It was raining, had been raining, and continued to rain into the early hours of Wednesday morning. But I'm willing to take the rain on set-up day versus hiking day. It was a little chilly at night and I had to put all my layers on to stay warm. I forgot that summer nights in the ADK can still fall into the 40's!
Wednesday morning we were up at 6am and planning to hit the trail by 7am. A little late getting going and hit the trail by 740am. The climb up Macomb was pretty smooth, although wet and muddy (theme of the day). We found a sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt hanging off branches at one point and then a t-shirt and pants hanging off a tree branch at another point. Fully expecting a naked man at the top! (joking) Mom was nervous on the slide up Macomb but she did fine. Told her to just lean forward and don't look up! Once we hit the summit marker we stopped for some snacks, water, and pictures. The black flies weren't that bad at this po..." — tscha1 • Jun 7, 2017

"Solo. Macomb > S. Dix (Carson) > Grace > S. Dix (Carson) > Hough > Dix. Note pertaining to the entire day's hike - the trail register for the Dix Wilderness at Elk Lake Road was completely out of pages.. Coming over from Hough, the col dropping down wasn't too terrible in my opinion, though the multiple false summits became a bit disheartening as I topped out on each one expecting to be on the last one! The views were unparalleled though, I had such great weather for this hike. The herd path was easy to follow, though very narrow and brushy in many spots- I'm glad I was wearing long pants and long sleeves to protect myself from being all scratched up. The rock scrambles nearing the summit were something to write home about - especially the large cracked rock that I encountered and almost donated a shoe to! I had some trouble navigating how to get up onto some things without any help from anyone, and really wondered how the heck I would descend afterward, haha. When I finally got up to the summit I ran into Ray whom I had been passed by on Grace Peak, he was on his way down. I took some photos and talked to two other young men at the summit who were nice enough to take some photos f..." — kellieirene • Sep 12, 2016

"A little overcast today but the clouds were high and the views from Dix and Hough were great. Deb and I went up the Beckhorn trail to Dix first then took the herd-path to Hough. Found the Beckhorn trail steady, long and very steep up by the Beckhorn, a lot of fun and very challenging. We made great time and the herdpath from Dix to Hough was easy. Once done we continued toward South and went the down the Lilian Brook Herdpath." — hbotc • Sep 10, 2016