Roosevelt-Marcy Trail
Roosevelt-Marcy Trail is a State Scenic Byway in New York. Within New York it covers roughly 40 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Roosevelt-Marcy Trail with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Roosevelt-Marcy Trail retraces Theodore Roosevelt's frantic 1901 stagecoach ride to the presidency, 40 miles through New York's Adirondack Mountains. On September 14, 1901, Vice President Roosevelt was descending Mount Marcy, New York's highest peak, after camping near Lake Tear of the Clouds when a runner reached him with news that President McKinley, shot eight days earlier in Buffalo, was dying. Roosevelt hiked out to Long Lake and then rode through the night by horse-drawn stagecoach along the route this byway now follows, reaching the North Creek train station at dawn to learn McKinley had died and that he was president. The 40.2-mile road, running from Long Lake on NY 30 to North Creek on NY 28N, was named the Roosevelt-Marcy Memorial Highway in the early 1980s before joining the state's official Scenic Byway Program in 1992. Today the drive passes the same forests, lakes, and mountain views Roosevelt rode through that night, a scenic byway built entirely around a single, specific historical event rather than a landscape or region.
- Long Lake to North Creek
- 40.2 miles
- TR's 1901 midnight stagecoach ride
- Mount Marcy, NY's highest peak
- became president en route
- designated NYS byway 1992
Plan a drive on Roosevelt-Marcy Trail →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Roosevelt-Marcy Trail
No campgrounds are listed close to Roosevelt-Marcy Trail yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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