Lake Tear of the Clouds

Lake Tear of the Clouds
Lake Tear of the Clouds with Mt. Marcy in the background
Location	Essex County, New York
Coordinates	44°06′24″N 73°56′09″W / 44.10667°N 73.93583°W / 44.10667; -73.93583Coordinates: 44°06′24″N 73°56′09″W / 44.10667°N 73.93583°W / 44.10667; -73.93583
Type	tarn
Primary inflows	unnamed streams
Primary outflows	Feldspar Brook
Basin countries	United States
Surface elevation	4,293 ft (1,309 m)

Lake Tear of the Clouds is a small tarn located in the town of Keene, in Essex County, New York, United States, on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy, the state's highest point, in the Adirondack Mountains. It is the highest pond in the state. It is often cited as the highest source of the Hudson River, via Feldspar Brook, the Opalescent River and Calamity Brook.

The Hudson River as named actually begins several miles southwest at the outlet of Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York.

In 1872 Verplanck Colvin described the lake as part of a survey of the Adirondack Mountains. He wrote:

On September 14, 1901, then-US Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was at Lake Tear of the Clouds after returning from a hike to the Mount Marcy summit when he received a message informing him that President William McKinley, who had been shot two weeks earlier but was expected to survive, had taken a turn for the worse. Roosevelt hiked down the mountain back to the Upper Tahawus Club, Tahawus, New York, where he had been staying. He then took a 40-mile (64 km) midnight stage coach ride through the Adirondacks to the Adirondack Railway station at North Creek, New York, where he discovered that McKinley had died. Roosevelt took the train to Buffalo, New York, where he was officially sworn in as President. The route is now designated the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail.