"Was just about pouring rain when I got to the trailhead. Rain came to a lull at some point throughout the hike. Started at Elk Lake Trailhead intending to take Slide Brook to Macomb and back. Ended up blowing right by Slide Brook trail, and mistaking it for Lillian Brook. I headed up the Lillian Brook trail and about .20 miles in lost the trail. It was very wet. I briefly followed the compass and map on my gps. I was unprepared for route finding in an unfamiliar zone and also in the pouring rain, so made the call to turn back. I was going to accept defeat and add this to the list of attempts, but then I found the Slide Brook Trail on the way back. I continued up. It was a steady climb from here to Macomb and even some fun scrambling. Very loose and exposed section near the top. Absolutely no views due to rain and clouds. Overall great little climb if you don't miss the trail. Saw 4 or 5 others, a red squirrel, and a snowshoe hare with its summer coat. Attached is something I found very interesting. Some devastation from Mother Nature. Very neat.. All around this zone were other large trees which also were knocked over. This one seemed to be the most recent.. C..." — ryangallant • Jun 9, 2025

"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

"Heavy rain throughout the whole hike. Trailhead surprisingly busy at 5:30AM on a rainy Sunday. Macomb slide was very tricky in the rain; slow ascent up the rocks to avoid slips or falls. Whole trail from Macomb through Grace Peak was flooded and stream-like. No panoramic summit views (too cloudy) but lots of flora and fauna along the trail. " — hunterjfrost • Jul 18, 2021

"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

"Tom, Black and I arrived at Garden lot at 5:45 only to find it full. Switched gears and headed to Elk lake. Arrived at Elk lake to find the last 2 miles of road closed due to covid adding 4 miles to our day. Temps in the 60s and sunny. Made the summit of Macomb at 9:30. Off to South Dix." — garyogden • Aug 1, 2020

"Longest day spent in the ADK. Took herd path from Route 73 and up Grace via the slide. Lost my way in the upper dry river bed. Was lucky enough to meet a couple of hikers whom I eventually became friends with. Between both our GPSes, we found our way through that part of the climb and did the marathon 5-peak Dix Range on a very hot day. Loved the descent into the col between Carson and Macomb as well as the ridge walk between Carson and Dix. Met another hiker bathing on the slide down Dix. Descent from Dix to Round Pond was very slow due to fatigue and one of the toughest descents in the ADK in my opinion. Returned to our cars around 11:30 that night." — JMindlin12463 • Jul 4, 2020

"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