Lake George: Experience Nature and History

A trip to Lake George offers a choice of different focuses: nature and history. Lake George Wild Forest and the trails at Berry Pond Preserve showcase nature; Lake George Battlefield, the ruins of Fort George, and the museum offer historical highlights. If you’re looking for a hotel in Lake George, you can first consider whether hiking trails and views or historic sites and exhibitions should shape your stay more.

Scenery and Hiking Trails

Lake George Wild Forest covers 72,508 acres and is located in the southeastern part of Adirondack Park. It is part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and extends into the Town of Lake George, among other areas. The forest also extends across other municipalities; the acreage refers to the entire Wild Forest, not just the Town. Lake George is therefore one of the municipalities across which the forest extends; the name refers to more than just the Town.

Berry Pond Preserve has moderately challenging to strenuous hiking trails with views of Lake George and the surrounding Adirondacks. This description offers two distinct planning considerations: the character of the trails and the views they offer. The preserve has more than four miles of trails, accessible from the Lake George Recreation Center. The trail mileage is from a description dated 2015; trail conditions may change. So check current conditions before your hike. More than four miles refers to the total length of the trails, not the walking time for an individual hike; the difficulty rating is a separate consideration.

History and Museum

At Lake George Battlefield, visitors can see the sites of the 1755 Battle of Lake George. The ruins of Fort George point to a later period: parts of the fort were built by the British in 1758–1759 as a defense against the French, after Fort William Henry had been destroyed. The dates thus distinguish the 1755 battle from the later construction of the defensive fort. Fort George therefore belongs to a subsequent period, not to the date of the battle itself.

The Lake George Historical Association Museum is located in an 1845 brick building at the corner of Canada Street and Amherst Street in Lake George Village. In its exhibition cellar, it displays original jail cells, artifacts related to ice fishing and logging, and an exhibition about Prospect Mountain. This gives the museum a different focus from Battlefield and Fort George: rather than battles and later defenses, it centers on a historic building and several exhibition topics. The historical subjects therefore differ, too: Battlefield and Fort George represent dated military history, while the museum focuses on a building and several exhibition topics.

Discover more destinations: North Creek, Lake Luzerne, Glens Falls, Warrensburg, Bolton, Queensbury.

Return to the overview of the region: Warren.