"12 years since my last trip to the Adirondacks! I guess that’s my excuse for not remembering how brutally insane these “trails” are. Ledges, mud, rocks for miles. Takes a whole different level of concentration to avoid doing something klutzy. Started 7am in 37 degrees… brrrr. Warmed up climbing the Macomb slide. Enjoyed the open climb up Carson and the wide rocky summit of Grace. The ridge trail from Carson to Dix went up and down so many times I lost all sense of time,space. The short ledgy sections up to Beckhorn were nothing compared to the first few hundred vertical down the Beckhorn Trail. There’s one ledge near the top that was the crux of the day. Took forever descending the ~2500 ft vert of that trail due to slippery wet slabs and muddy ledges. Then it was 3.8 miles back to Elk Lake with some surprise vert and tedious footing most of the way. Incredible day, feel lucky I didn’t wipe out, but man these are exhausting. " — scott • Sep 24, 2026

"Started from the Elk Lake Trailhead (very early to get parking) and took Hunter's Pass Trail (fairly flat for the first 2.3 miles until the split towards Macomb Slide (still over a mile after the split before the slide). The trails are not marked. Macomb Slide up to Macomb Mtn, then fork off for Carson Peak (previously South Dix - no view there, but there was one further up on the trail), then out to Grace Peak (formerly Grace Peak which was out and back and had good views) and back to continue on to Pough Peak and then Hough Peak. Then to Beckhorn (some interesting scrambling to get there along the ridge) which had 360 views. From there is was pretty quick over to Dix Mountain which had good views on both sides, but not quite as good as Beckhorn. Had to go back to Beckhorn to take the trail down. From Dix back down to the trailhead it was 6.6 miles, but felt longer because the first part was very steep and even after that it was extremely rocky." — AmyScrambles • Jul 25, 2026

"Tom and I left the Round Pond trail at 7 am under clear skies @21°. Micro spikes from the car to the Noonmark trail junction. From there to the summit in snow shoes. I'm normally not a bitching Karen. But I'd like to send out a big "WAY TO GO" to the 2 self-centered, inconsiderate morons who bare booted and destroyed the trail from the Noonmark junction all the way to the summit. 2 and 3 foot deep postholes nearer the summit. The views were incredible from the summit. The going was slow, taking us 6 hours to summit. The post holeing was aggravating and dangerous. 11 hours in total. Returning with head lamps. " — garyogden • Jan 12, 2025

"Hiked back up and over Dix to get back from previous Dix range hike. Same trip, just camped on other side of Dix. Weather was night and day, so much better and flooding reduced notably. Frost on summit." — Nao • Oct 9, 2023

"Worst weather I’ve ever hiked in. Poured for 48 hours straight so trails were flooded. Steep and unmarked the whole way up Macomb to South Dix to Hough to Dix. Camped past dix and climbed back over the next day to head back. 11 hours hiking the first day. Still a good time." — Nao • Oct 7, 2023

"Hiked the Dix Range from Elk Lake parking area. We took the Macomb Slide up to start. Lots of loose rock and pebbles but there were enough solid and dry surfaces to hop to. The path to Grace Peak, the Dix Trail, and Beckhorn trail were all moderately to severely muddy which added to the difficulty of the trek. I still highly recommend this hike for all of the surprise rock scrambles!" — pandyabear • Jun 11, 2022

"Started from Upper Elk Lake parking, 2.3 miles to trailhead then up Hunter's Pass to Lillian Brook Trail to Hough summit. Over the Back-horn to Dix, then doubled back to descend via the Beck-horn Trail. Fifteen below in the morning… and windy on the summits!" — hunterjfrost • Jan 16, 2022

"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