Bear Den’s southwest-facing summit views are seen in Wilmington on Tuesday, July 22. Whiteface Mountain and some of its ski trails are seen at right. The Sentinel Range seen at left. The MacIntyre Range, as well as Wallface, Street and Nye mountains, can be seen in the background through the Wilmington Notch. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

WILMINGTON — Whether it’s looking from Vermont or Canada on a clear day, or someplace closer like Tupper Lake, Wilmington or Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain is both iconically prominent and directionally differing in its appearance.

Its 4,867-foot summit, the fifth tallest in the state, owns the spotlight. Situated over a dozen miles apart from the more clustered High Peaks that share comparable heights, Whiteface is a hard mountain to mistake, though much like the snowflakes that greet its slopes in the winter, no two looks at the mountain are quite the same.

From its east, viewers can see the ski trails, faint lines from afar that become more detailed, with recognizable turns and servicing lift lines coming into glimpse at closer distances. From its west, such as in and around Lake Placid, its jagged spiny shoulders and Whiteface Brook Slide — not to be confused with “The Slides” that are part of the ski center — come into focus.

While each view is, in its own way, spectacular, none in my opinion, capture the essence of Whiteface as poetically as from the summit of 2,650-foot Bear Den Mountain. It’s a view you don’t see from any other vantage point. The foreground offers a wide-lens profile of the ski resort, almost like a cross-section drawing.

The trails are carved into the steep mountain slopes, creating a palette blend of light green grasses on the open paths and lush dark woods on either side. Chairlifts and buildings can be seen as the ski center’s gondola whizzed along, providing summer tours to the Little Whiteface summit.

Wild blueberries are seen growing near Bear Den Mountain’s summit on Tuesday, July 22, in Wilmington. Whiteface Mountain and some of its ski trails are seen in the background. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

The ski center’s infrastructural grandeur as one of the premier ski destinations in the Northeast stood in sharp contrast to the surrounding wilderness zones — the Sentinel Range to the left and the High Peaks in the background, seen through the Wilmington Notch — where any development is constitutionally forbidden.

In many ways, the view is the story of the Adirondacks today; a delicate balance of — and at numerous points in the past, present and future, friction between — development and preservation. From Bear Den, the trails, lifts, roads and structures are nestled between lands with some of the most stringent levels of ecological protection and preservation anywhere in the world.

Though Bear Den’s summit can evoke those thoughts and reflections, to put it plainly, it’s a phenomenal view, and one worth the hike provided that one is in shape for a trail that climbs over 1,300 feet in 1.6 miles (for a total distance of 3.2 miles on the way back down).from the ski center. Overall, it’s a moderately difficult hike, easier than any of the High Peaks but a decided degree more difficult than Cobble Hill, the Heaven Hill trails or some of the other popular walking paths around Lake Placid.

There are two trailheads: one from the ski center and the other from the Flume Trails, whose parking area is just over a mile closer to Wilmington off of state Route 86 than the ski center’s main driveway. The ski center offers a slightly shorter route, though the Flume Trails — for an extra couple hundred of feet in elevation gain and a few tenths of a mile in distance — offer a prettier walk from the vicinity of the West Branch AuSable River.

I chose to start from the ski center. Those starting from the Flume Trails should beware that it’s a spider-web of a trail network, with numerous other routes popular for mountain biking spurring off. Pay extra close attention to a map if starting there.

Bear Den Mountain trail sign (News photo — Chris Gaige)

Driving into the ski center, take a right toward the Bear Den Lodge just after crossing a bridge over the AuSable River, with the main lodge visible on the left. Continue uphill as the driveway then make a sharp left, past a large parking lot on the right. After the bend ceases, charging ports for electric vehicles come into view on the right, with the trailhead register located near those.

While the lot is packed in the winter when the ski center is in full swing, there is plenty of parking available in the summer, with non-electric vehicle spots beginning just to the left of the chargers at the edge of the parking lot.

After signing in, the trail proceeds at a mix of level of gradual uphill terrain, coming to a well-marked intersection with the Flume Trails (where you would pick up the route if starting from the other trailhead) about 0.5 miles from the Whiteface parking lot. Follow signs for Bear Den, which leads hikers to the left if starting in from the ski center.

Leaving the junction, the serious climbing starts. There are no technical scrambles on this hike, but it is a sustained, steady uphill. There are several switchbacks along the route, aiding the trail’s durability. The trail is primarily through deciduous forests. In the late fall, after leaves come down, the trail could be tricky to find in spots as leaves uniformly cover the forest floor. On Tuesday, July 22, it wasn’t an issue, and I found myself on the summit in short order, able to take in the views.

The trail does splinter a bit at the top, with some small side paths weaving their way through the scrub between lookout points. Note that the first lookout can feel like the summit, but the trail continues a bit further to the left, with more views and slightly higher ground that way.

The trailhead register for Bear Den Mountain is seen near the Bear Den ski lodge’s parking lot at the Whiteface Mountain ski area in Wilmington on Tuesday, July 22. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

After taking the views in, I made my way back down and was back at my car 90 minutes after I began my hike, though there was a bit of trail jogging on the way back down. At a more leisurely pace, the mountain can reasonably be completed in two-and-a-half hours or so, setting aside plenty of time for views.

Bear Den Mountain makes for a solidly moderate hike, and its spectacularly unique views make it a worthy way to spend a portion of a day in the Olympic region. Note that the mountain shares the name, and is not to be confused with, a mountain in the town of Keene that’s accessed from the Adirondack Mountain Reserve parking lot. Bear Den Mountain in Wilmington is also part of the “Lake Placid 9er” hiking challenge, with some mountains in the challenge generally considered easier than Bear Den, while others are considered more difficult. For more information on that, visit lakeplacid9er.com.