While Lake George and the eastern fringes of the Adirondacks in general hold little to compete with the interior, an hour's drive northwest along Hwy-28 takes you past the headwaters of the Hudson River to the tiny resort of BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE . A handful of motels and lakeside cabins provide accommodation, and you can swim at the pretty little beach that fronts the village center. Sagamore Great Camp , about fifteen miles west, in the woods above Raquette Lake, is the only one of the many "Great Camps" that wealthy Easterners constructed in the Adirondacks around the end of the nineteenth century that is open to the public. Not to be confused with the four-star Sagamore Resort on an island in Lake George, Sagamore Great Camp was a summer home of the Vanderbilts , basically a huge and luxurious log cabin in which they entertained illustrious guests - including Hoagy Carmichael, who supposedly wrote the song Stardust while driving the four-mile dirt road that leads up to the house. The still-intact house and grounds are now used as a conference and educational center, and for cross-country skiing in winter; call for details of summer art and photography classes , or to reserve a place on a guided two-hour tour (July & Aug 10am & 1.30pm daily; Sept & Oct 10am & 1.30pm; rest of year call for details; $9; tel 315/354-5311). Alternatively, if you'd like to get closer to the other, still private Great Camps, you can take a short tour of the area by plane, which gives good views of several; it also gives a clear idea of how uninhabited the region really is. In Inlet, near Raquette Lake, try Bird's Seaplane Service (8.30am-dusk; $20 per person, $50 minimum; tel 315/357-3631) or Payne's ($20 per person, $50 minimum; tel 315/357-3971).

Just north of Blue Mountain Lake on Hwy-30, the twenty-building Adirondack Museum (late May to mid-Oct daily 9.30am-5.30pm; $10) has 22 rather bland exhibit areas spread over thirty acres on aspects of regional life, including art, sports, iron mining and wildlife. It's perhaps most memorable for its grand views out over the lake and surrounding mountains.