Category Archives: Saratoga Spa State Park

Lakes to Locks/ Saratoga Trip- Day 3 Recap

a logo with a number and text

a lake with mountains in the background

Our third and final day in the Lakes to Locks Passage & Saratoga area wasn’t as busy as our first two days. (Find out about Day 1 here and Day 2 here) We wanted to get home at a reasonable hour and had a long drive ahead.

We decided to stick with seeing some sites around Saratoga Spa State Park which is where our hotel, the Gideon Putnam Resort is located.

Here are some things we saw around the park:

  • Checked out the Gideon Putnam Resort
  • Sampled some water from a couple of natural springs
  • Drove around the park to see some buildings
  • Visited the Lincoln Baths

a horse statue in front of a building
Gideon Putnam Resort

The Gideon Putnam Resort is a beautiful hotel on the Historic Hotels of America list. The hotel has a museum-room with poster boards telling about it’s history. We didn’t get to see a lot of the grounds but what we did see was well kept and very nice.

a group of people pouring water into a water fountain
State Seal Spring

 We sampled water at two more springs in the park. I had originally planned to try out a bunch more but Lucas was not too interested so we called it a day soon after. One of the springs had such good water that people were pulling up with their cars full of bottles to fill up. It was an interesting sight to see!

a building with columns and a lawn
Hall of Springs

We drove around the park and saw some really beautiful architecture. The old bottling plant now is the home to the Automobile Museum. We also walked around a small section of the park and enjoyed checking out the Hall of Springs and Administration buildings. The park wasn’t crowded but there were many people walking around and jogging.

a white building with columns and a lawn
Lincoln Baths

Every time we drove by the Lincoln Baths, I wondered what it looked like inside. From the outside the building was an impressive site to see. I asked at the hotel what the  Lincoln  building was used for and found out that it was now home to the park police! I stopped by the Lincoln Baths and took a few pictures outside before going in for a look. I only walked around the first floor and was pretty impressed. There were two very old fountains which were no longer working. You could also see up to the second floor through an octagonal cutout in the ceiling.

Lastly, we got to enjoy some good food before heading home.
To save time, we ate breakfast in our room. (No, we did not order room service.) We enjoyed apple cider doughtnuts that we had picked up on the way back to our hotel on day 2. The farm stand Saratoga Apple sold all different apples that you could buy by the pound. It also sold vegetables and other local products. The donuts made for a tasty breakfast!

For lunch we drove towards home and stopped in Troy, NY for some great barbecue. Dinosaur BBQ isn’t located in the Lakes to Locks Passage or Saratoga. One of their locations is in Troy, NY which was on the way home so I had to stop there for lunch. Kim and I visited the NYC location a few years back and loved it but we rarely go up to Harlem. We figured a stop for some great bbq on the way home was a great idea!

    ***I plan to write individual posts for some of the things mentioned above in the near future. 

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