Lake Champlain Shore · Lakes to Locks

The west shore of Lake Champlain: from Ticonderoga you head north through Crown Point, Port Henry and Westport, take Lake Shore Rd along the water to Essex and continue through Willsboro to Keeseville. It's 55 miles of small towns, farms and lake views with Vermont across the water, mostly on the Lakes to Locks Passage. Don't cross the lake bridge at Crown Point: it goes to Vermont. There's food in almost every town, and Westport and Port Henry have stops right by the water.

Most of this ride runs on the Lakes to Locks Passage, which in 2002 became New York's only federal All-American Road, and the stretch of NY-22 between Fort Ann and Keeseville is part of it. History is close to the road: Fort Ticonderoga sits just outside the town where the route starts, and near the lake bridge at Crown Point the state historic site holds the ruins of the French Fort St. Frédéric, begun in 1734, and the British fort begun in 1759. Port Henry mined and smelted iron for about 150 years, and its 1822 blast furnace was one of the first in the country.

Essex was formed in 1805 and grew as a shipbuilding port until the railroads arrived after 1849; its village is a historic district, and a year-round ferry runs from there to Charlotte, Vermont, though the route stays on the New York side. Westport has a state boat launch with a big lot right on the lake. At the end, Ausable Chasm is a few minutes north of Keeseville on US-9 if you want one more stop.