What You'll See
Your 60-minute tour route, the history, and the points of interest along the way.
From takeoff at Harris Airport to the cannons of Fort Ticonderoga and back — here's what you'll be looking at, and the stories behind it.
32
Lake George miles
175+
islands
195 ft
deepest point
1646
first European visit
17
years NCHF flying
1
0:00–0:05
Departure — Harris Airport
Lift off from Harris Airport (83K) in Ft. Ann, NY. Climb out to the north-northwest toward Lake George.
- Field code 83K · privately-owned, public-use airport · NCHF's home for 17 years
- Ft. Ann, NY — named for Queen Anne · key British supply post during the Revolutionary War
- The Champlain corridor below us has been the natural Albany–Montreal travel route since pre-Columbian times
2
0:05–0:15
Lake George — South & Slow-Fly Over Fort William Henry
Cross the south end of the lake. We slow-fly over the fort so you can really see it. Then north along the west shore.
- "The most beautiful water I ever saw." — Thomas Jefferson, 1791
- Father Isaac Jogues was the first European here, in 1646. He named it Lac du Saint-Sacrement
- British general William Johnson renamed it Lake George in 1755 in honor of King George II
- Slow-fly over Fort William Henry (south shore) — the reconstructed star-shaped fort from the 1757 siege made famous in The Last of the Mohicans. From the air you can see the bastions, the parade ground, and (on busy days) the costumed reenactors
- Sagamore Resort at Bolton Landing — built on Green Island, opened 1883 as a private hotel for industrialists
- Marcella Sembrich, a famous Polish opera soprano, summered at Bolton Landing — her studio is preserved as a museum
3
0:15–0:22
Tongue Mountain & The Narrows
A long peninsula of forested ridges juts in from the west and splits the lake.
- Lake George is at its narrowest right here — the Tongue Mountain Range almost touches the eastern shoreline
- Below us: the deepest water — 195 feet, glacially carved during the last ice age
- One of the densest concentrations of timber rattlesnakes in New York lives on the Tongue Mountain ridges (protected; rocky-ridge habitat only)
- Northwest Bay (sheltered, sailing) · Hague (a 19th-century logging village)
4
0:22–0:30
Roger's Rock & a Full Circle Over Fort Ticonderoga
North end of Lake George; we orbit Fort Ti so every window gets the view.
- Roger's Rock (west shore cliff) — named for Major Robert Rogers of Rogers' Rangers. Local legend: he escaped a French patrol in 1758 by sliding down this cliff onto the frozen lake
- Anthony's Nose (east shore promontory) — a 935-foot rocky cliff used as a navigational landmark by early steamboat captains
- The LaChute River drops 220 feet over three miles — the natural connector between Lake George and Lake Champlain
- We circle Fort Ticonderoga. A full left orbit gives every passenger a 360° look at the star-bastion walls, the King's Gardens, the parade ground, and the original cannons
- Built by the French in 1755 as Fort Carillon. Captured by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys at dawn on May 10, 1775 — the first American victory of the Revolutionary War
- The cannons captured here were dragged across Massachusetts in winter by Henry Knox and used to drive the British out of Boston in 1776
- Yes — the Ticonderoga pencil is named after this town
5
0:30–0:38
Lake Champlain Branch
Cross east to the southern tip of Lake Champlain.
- Lake Champlain is 125 miles long — forms most of the NY–VT border, with its north tip in Quebec
- Named for Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who reached it in July 1609 — among the earliest European discoveries in North America
- Briefly designated "the Sixth Great Lake" by Congress in 1998 (rescinded after Great Lakes states objected)
- Crown Point — Fort Saint-Frédéric (1734) ruins, replaced by British Fort Crown Point
- The Battle of Valcour Island (October 1776) — Benedict Arnold's improvised fleet lost the battle but delayed the British advance for a year, arguably saving the Revolution
6
0:38–0:45
Through the Valley
Bank southwest across the watershed divide between Lake Champlain and Lake George.
- Both lakes occupy fault valleys carved by glaciers · the bedrock below is over a billion years old
- The valley below was the natural land route between the lakes — used by Mohawk and Iroquois peoples for centuries before any European arrived
- Bear, moose, and increasingly returning bobcat country
- Mountain ponds visible: Putnam Pond, Eagle Lake, and a few unnamed waters
7
0:45–0:55
East Shore Southbound — Fire Towers, Lookouts, Camps
Reacquire Lake George; head south down the east shoreline.
- Black Mountain fire tower — built 1911 atop the 2,646-ft summit · one of the oldest still-standing fire towers in the Adirondacks · originally manned year-round by a forest ranger watching for wildfires
- Buck Mountain (2,330 ft) and Pilot Knob — Pilot Knob got its name from 18th-century lake captains who used it as a navigational landmark for the south end of the lake
- The east shore has more century-old summer camps than almost any lake in America. Camp Chingachgook (YMCA, est. 1913) is the most prominent · several historic girls' camps still operate along the same shoreline
- The Lake George summer-camp tradition began in the early 1900s — wealthy families in New York and Boston sent children north to escape urban summers
8
0:55–1:00
Return to Harris Airport
Cross the south end of the lake one more time. Land at 83K.
- One last view of Lake George Village from above — one of the most photographed perspectives in the entire Northeast
- Approach into Harris Airport · cool down · shutdown · exit forward at 45° from the disc
Liked the flight?
The most useful thing you can do for us is leave a Google review. We'll send you a link by text after we land.
Want to do this again — or send someone else?
Book Another Flight Give a Gift Card