Most people drive through the Lake Champlain Islands at speed, using Route 2 as a shortcut between Burlington and the New York border crossing at Rouses Point. This is understandable and wrong. The islands — South Hero, Grand Isle, North Hero, and Isle La Motte — reward stopping, preferably more than once, and particularly at the hours when the lake does something with light that seems to exceed what a lake at this latitude should be capable of.
The Road Through the Archipelago
Route 2 runs the length of the island chain from South Hero to North Hero, crossing from island to island on short causeways and bridges. Driving it slowly in October, with the apple harvest underway and the lake on both sides throwing afternoon light, is one of the simpler pleasures I’ve had in New England. The farms here grow things that islands grow — apples particularly, but also squash and pumpkins, the stands appearing at farm driveways every half mile with hand-lettered price lists and honor boxes.
Snow Farm Vineyard in South Hero is the kind of place that grows on you. Vermont is not wine country in any serious sense, but the hybrid cold-climate varietals that Snow Farm produces are better than expectation — the Marquette especially, a red with genuine tannin structure and something like dark cherry in the finish. The vineyard sit has a view across the lake to the Adirondacks that makes the tasting feel more ceremonial than it is.
Isle La Motte and the Reef That Was
Isle La Motte is the westernmost and most geological of the islands. The Chazy Reef — exposed limestone formations along the island’s western shoreline — is one of the oldest known fossil reefs in the world, about 480 million years old, and the corals and cephalopod fossils visible in the rock surface are clear enough to see without equipment. The Fisk Quarry Preserve gives access to the best fossil exposures, a short walk through cedar forest that opens onto a former quarry where the reef limestone was extracted for the St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
I spent an hour here in quiet October morning with nobody else around, looking at coral structures that were alive when the continents were in completely different positions. The word “perspective” gets used too casually but I don’t have a better one.
North Hero and the Herons
North Hero State Park occupies the northern tip of North Hero Island and has a campground that runs into Lake Champlain on three sides. The swimming is good in summer, the views north toward the Canadian border include an unbroken horizon of lake and sky, and the great blue herons that nest in the dead trees along the shoreline are a constant presence — standing still in the shallows at dawn, the sound of their wings when they launch themselves improbable for something that large.
The North Hero House, a country inn in the village, has been operating since 1891 and has the relaxed confidence of a place that has survived multiple fashions. The lake-facing porch is where you want to be with a glass of local cider and no schedule. I came for one night and stayed two because leaving seemed premature.
The Agricultural Character
What the islands have that the rest of Vermont sometimes lacks is pure horizontal space — the terrain is flat and the farms sprawl in a way that mountain Vermont doesn’t permit. The Island Line Trail, a biking path built on an old causeway, runs from Colchester on the mainland to South Hero and crosses open water on a movable bridge section that lifts for boat traffic. The crossing, with Lake Champlain visible in all directions, is one of the more spatially unusual biking experiences in the Northeast.
The Allenholm Orchards farm stand in South Hero has been selling apples since 1870 and in October the bins hold thirty or more varieties, the names a mix of familiar (Honeycrisp, Cortland) and heirloom (Twenty Ounce, Duchess of Oldenburg) that require explanation and then turn out to be worth having.
When to go: Late summer and fall are the ideal seasons — apples peak in September and October, the lake is still warm enough for swimming in August, and the islands’ agricultural character is most vivid. The Island Line Trail is best biked June through October. Winter is quiet and the islands can feel remote; some businesses close. Spring brings mud and the lake’s off-season beauty without the crowds, which certain types of travelers (I am one) will find appealing.