Lake George Jazz Festival – Lake George NY

RATING: ♦♦♦♦♦

From Arrowhead Marina and RV Park, we took a day trip to Lake George NY, which is both a lake and a town on the lake. The lake is nicknamed the “Queen of American Lakes”, which reportedly is what Thomas Jefferson called it when he visited.

It’s is a 32 mile long, narrow mountain lake located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains, in the northeastern portion of Upstate New York. It drains all the way northward into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River.

The lake is situated along the historical natural path between the valleys of the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers, and so lies on the direct land route between Albany, New York and Montreal, Canada used by the early settlers and the Native Americans long before that.

Because of its strategic importance, it was the site of Fort William Henry. It was an important battle site during the French and Indian War just prior to the American Revolution. The fort was destroyed during the war, but has since been reconstructed. The fort figures prominently in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans.

The area around Lake George has been a favorite vacation spot for centuries. The lake shore has many large and beautiful mansions, which were summer homes for the rich folks from New York City. Although the year-round population of the Lake George region is relatively small, the summertime population can swell to over 50,000 residents. We were there in mid-September, so the crowds weren’t too bad.

We went to Lake George initially to attend the second day of a two-day long Jazz Festival, but the music wasn’t much to our liking. So we took a lake cruise and did some sightseeing instead. Glad we did. Really beautiful area.

Lake George NY