The Moose River Plains Wild Forest is a 50,000-acre (200 km2) tract in the Adirondack Park in Hamilton and Herkimer counties in New York State; it is designated as Wild Forest by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It is bounded on the north by the Pigeon Lake Wilderness Area, Raquette Lake and the Blue Ridge Wilderness Area, on the east and the south by the West Canada Lake Wilderness Area and the private lands of the Adirondack League Club, and on the west by the Fulton Chain Lakes and New York State Route 28. It includes the Red River, one of the many Indian Rivers in the Park (originating at Brook Trout Lake), Cobblestone Creek, Mountain Lake Outlet, Horn Lake Outlet, Ice Cave Mountain Outlet, Benedict Brook, Muskrat Creek, Silver Run, Otter Brook, Twin Lakes Outlet, the headwaters of the North Branch of the Black River (beginning just over the hill behind Horn Lake), the South Branch of the Moose River and the 675-acre (2.73 km2) Cedar River Flow, as well as Mitchell Ponds, Lost Ponds, Twin Lakes, Icehouse and Helldiver Ponds, Beaver Lake, Squaw Lake, Balsam Lake, Stink Lake, Mountain Lake, Monument Lake, Snyder Lake, and furthest in, Horn Lake. This is the area in which the Adirondack Guide, French Louie, ran so many of his traplines. Entrances to the Plains are at the Cedar River Gate, near Indian Lake, NY, and the Limekiln Gate, near Inlet, NY. It is the largest block of remote lands in the Adirondacks readily accessible by motor vehicle, and probably contains the most remote lands in the Adirondacks.
The "plains" of the Moose and Red Rivers are zones of grass and herbaceous vegetation that contrast with the forest that covers much of the Adirondack Park.
The Moose River Plains Wild Forest has miles of marked trails for hiking, skiing, mountain biking, horseback riding, and snowmobiling, along with many lakes and ponds for canoeing and kayaking. Hunting, fishing and primitive camping are permitted during designated seasons.
Famous quotes containing the words moose, river, plains, wild and/or forest:
“As I sat before the fire on my fir-twig seat, without walls above or around me, I remembered how far on every hand that wilderness stretched, before you came to cleared or cultivated fields, and wondered if any bear or moose was watching the light of my fire; for Nature looked sternly upon me on account of the murder of the moose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My favorite figure of the American author is that of a man who breeds a favorite dog, which he throws into the Mississippi River for the pleasure of making a splash. The river does not splash, but it drowns the dog.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The Plains are not forgiving. Anything that is shallow—the easy optimism of a homesteader; the false hope that denies geography, climate, history; the tree whose roots don’t reach ground water—will dry up and blow away.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“When among wild beasts, if they menace you, be a wild beast.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Master of all sorts of wood-craft, he seemed a part of the forest and the lake, and the secret of his amazing skill seemed to be that he partook of the nature and fierce instincts of the beasts he slew.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)