The Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness is a southwestern Adirondack landmark, an old familiar friend to which people return again and again. With an engaging trail system and destinations spaced just far enough away from civilization to serve as backdrops for comfortable weekend hikes, this wilderness is comfort food for the adventurous soul.

As popular and pleasingly wild as it is today, it is easy to forget that today’s Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness was pieced together from yesterday’s discarded lands; it might not even exist as part of the Forest Preserve had it not been burned to a crisp in 1903, the victim of a stray spark from the nearby Adirondack Division Railroad in Thendara. Its timber value all but destroyed, the state snapped up this acreage in 1909. The forest has since grown back, but not without changes; graceful stands of tall black cherry trees would not exist today had the fire not cleared places for them to flourish as saplings.