A shot of the Adirondacks and a frozen over Lake George February 15th, 2020 – Maxx Fidalgo
Lake George, New York
Welcome to beautiful, sunny Lake George, New York!
Or at least, that’s what’s advertised during the summer months. In the wintertime, Lake George, New York sings a different tune. It may still be sunny – on occasion – and the little village nestled amongst the mountains is definitely still beautiful. But pair that with negative degree weather and plenty of snow, and the village turns into a winter wonderland.
The village of Lake George is located in upstate New York, about one hour north of the state capitol in Albany. Lake George proper is a 32 mile long lake that eventually drains out into the slightly more famous Lake Champlain. The village, with a population that hovers around 3500, was established in 1903. It sits at the base of the Adirondack Mountains, a circular mountain group formed by glaciers thousands of years ago. The group’s diameter runs about 160 miles and the peaks can reach up to a mile high.
In the summer months, Lake George and it’s village attract people in the thousands from all over the country as a peak vacation spot. At any point during this time, the town can hold up to 50,000 people – almost 15 times the number of its original population! The area boasts steamboat cruises, boat rides and rentals, parasailing, hang-gliding, lake-side beaches, mountain trail horseback riding, local rodeos, and breathtaking vistas of the surrounding nature up on Prospect Mountain. The main shopping strip is home to quirky clothing chains like DILLIGAF (Does It Look Like I Give A F*ck?) and the quieter, more local finds like Molly Malone’s Irish Gifts. You can even find the Silver Mine, a shop reminiscent of all the best parts of the 70s with The Grateful Dead quilts hanging in the back, a heavy scent of incense in the air, homemade goat-milk soaps, and CBD laced goodies. Lake George Village definitely has range.
Like most small towns that are bustling with popularity and tourism in the summer, the off-season is quieter and definitely has less foot traffic. Many stores close down until summertime, though a few will stay open for the locals.
But Lake George has a trump card, an ace up it’s sleeve that at least alleviates that particular fear. For the entire month of February, Lake George opens its doors back up to the public. The village takes advantage of its beautiful location, freezing temperatures, and obnoxiously large lake to put on its very own Winter Carnival.
Lake George in the Winter
The Winter Carnival at Lake George is hosted every weekend of the month of February since 1961. During the coldest parts of the year, Lake George itself will freeze over with several inches of ice. With over 32 miles of frozen lake, what’s a village to do? The answer: use it as their fairgrounds. Shepard Park in the center of town serves as the carnival’s headquarters with a new cook-off held every Saturday in the amphitheatre, but it’s the frozen ice-top of the lake that hosts the real fun. I’m from southeastern Massachusetts. Lake George is approximately four hours away from me, if I leave my city at the ungodly hour of 5AM. On the weekend of February 15th-16th, I packed a daybag, grabbed a friend, and headed up to Lake George. But how did I even hear about this Winter Carnival in Lake George of all places? Well, growing up, I spent weekends there in August with my family. I’m used to high temperatures, tours up Prospect Mountain, rodeos in the evening, and cruising on the lake with hundreds of other people. Lake George in the winter was a mystery to me and the traveler in me wanted to solve it. This blog is dedicated to the paths and trails where we place our feet. The prospect of the first place I go being on top of ice was too exciting to pass up.
Arrival in Lake George
Saturday, February 15th, 9:15AM. With a few rest stops built in, my friend and made it to Lake George Village, New York. The last time I visited was in August 2012, almost eight years earlier. Since then, our favorite breakfast place formerly named Grandma’s Back Porch Restaurant has been sold and turned into Christine’s Restaurant. They were also not open, so we found a little place called XII Sporks to have breakfast at. They got our day started with wonderful homestyle breakfast food and large portions. Genuine service greeted us from the moment we stepped through their doors.
Out back and visible from the floor to ceiling windows at the rear of the restaurant was a little brook, half-frozen, half-running with snowmelt from the mountains. We sat here and enjoyed our food before heading out for a drive. The carnival events started in earnest around noon time, but many of the shops in town were open for business.
A word of warning to all those who flock to the carnival during its last weekend: an entire lake is frozen for this event which means the area is going to be freezing. When we got into Lake George Village, the average temperature was about 1°F and I don’t think it went above 10°F throughout the day. Needless to say: bundle up.
Lake George Winter Carnival
Photo taken by Maxx Fidalgo
The events of the carnival are graciously posted to the website and broken up by weekend. One of the first events hosted to open every weekend is the Poker Run. The ice that covers Lake George is so thick that it can hold multiple ATVs and snowmobiles. Registration starts at 9AM and goes until the Poker Run begins at noon. During this time, people zoom across the ice on their ATVs, picking up cards for the game. There must have been two or three dozen of them out there. The general public is allowed and encouraged to be on the ice as well, watching the proceedings. To the far right on the lake, past docks that have been liberated from the ice, is a coned-off area of Zamboni-smooth ice for the youth hockey teams to host their games later on in the weekend.
The ice itself is quite thick, though I confess my friend and I were nervous to traverse it. At first. Then, of course, we saw the town land a helicopter on the ice for helicopter rides, and that fear disappeared. If the ice could hold a whole helicopter weighing in, on average, at a ton or two, then it could hold two adults barely 300lbs together when clutching at each other and tripping along the ice. It wasn’t slippery ice either – we were just clumsy. Lake George had seen some snow in the last few days, and with the freezing temperatures, a few inches had stayed on the ice, giving attendees some traction when walking on the lake.
The Shepard’s Park Amphitheatre Photo taken by Maxx Fidalgo
While the ATV run and helicopter rides were going on, the cook-off in the amphitheatre on the hill park behind us was under way. This weekend, it was a chowder cook-off. At just $5 for a chance to try as many of those chowders as you liked, the line snaked all the way down the hill and right onto the lake-side beach. If you happened to be waiting on that beach, a cordoned off bonfire burned in the center, fueled by wood pallets. The spot allowed a good view of the lake proceedings, the misty mountains in the distance turning purple in the filtered sun, and a toasty backside when you turned to take in the views.
Being a carnival, multiple events were taking place at the same time. While the ATVs raced around and the chowder was cooked, attendees had a chance at entering multiple raffles.
On the beach by the bonfire, shirts were being tie-dyed in the snow and s’mores tables were being set up on the sand. A doggy talent show was held in the late afternoon, with a sweet a husky taking first place for bark-mumbling ‘I-love-you’ to her owner. The rest of the equally cute canine contestants enjoyed a 10% off discount at the local pet shop that boasted pet-friendly pizza and beer. The owners, Lisa and Chas Giknis, MC’d the event as well as the raffles. At the end of carnival’s run, those who bought one of the limited 550 tickets had a chance to win either a 2020 Polaris 600 Indy 121 Snowmobile or a 2020 Kawasaki Mule SX 4X4 F1 ATV – their choice. Throughout the proceedings, a food truck with hot beverages and everything from soup to hot dogs sold its wares at an affordable price.
The carnival day concluded with a wonderful display of fireworks over the lake and village. In the summer, the village also hosts fireworks events. These did not disappoint. This company has range in color, size, and design when it comes to their fireworks. They do not skimp material and the result is a plethora of entertainment that has your eyes trained on the night skies from the moment the event starts at 6PM. However, in a bid to beat the traffic, my friend and I grabbed a bite to eat at Duffy’s Tavern, then headed back through three states to get home to Massachusetts before the fireworks went.
Where Our Feet Were: Center Ice, Lake George
It’s amazing to think that I was standing on at least a foot of ice in the middle of a lake! I could have walked clear to the other side of that portion of the lake – about a mile across. For those of you wondering, here’s how that works. Different thicknesses of ice mean different weights can be held on it. At at least 8 inches thick, a general car can drive on the ice. At 10 inches? A medium sized truck. Over that? I guess if we do it Lake George style, you can land a helicopter on the ice.
Not to worry, the village checks the ice before the festival to make sure thickness is maintained. After all, just because the ice is thick in some locations doesn’t mean it will be the same thickness throughout the rest of the lake. Indeed, there have been years that the lake didn’t freeze over enough for the festival to be held on it. As far back as 1919 to as recent as 2017, the temperatures in the region have not been cold enough for total freeze over. Rising temperatures due to climate change are something residents and attendees of the festival have to contend with.
But thankfully, this year it was cold enough for Lake George, the Queen of American lakes, to freeze over. For those still a bit nervous at the prospect of walking on a 168 feet-deep, frozen lake, the village has put out a safety page on their website here with general safety tips for ice-walking in general.
One must admit, it’s an innovative way for a place that makes most of their profit in the summer season to balance out during the winter. Yes, there’s skiing to be had during that time of year, especially in the mountains around them. But nothing boosts business like an entire carnival that spans a month’s time. And it’s all based on the unique ability to be on an enormous, frozen lake – a marketable natural phenomenon if there ever were one.
Nicole Martinez, my partner in crime, sitting on a carved ice block Photo taken by Maxx Fidalgo
To put things into perspective, my city – New Bedford, Massachusetts – has been branching out into tourism in recent years. Originally a whaling city that turned to fishing when the whaling industry died, most of our tourism happens in the summer as well. The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, a Madeiran-Portuguese feast that claims to be the biggest in the world, along with a steady supply of fresh seafood, quirky downtown shops, a whaling museum, and a national historic park site attract people from far and wide during the warmer months. Having several beaches and ferries to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket don’t hurt our summer tourism chances either. But in the winter… we’ve got nothing. We’re not close enough to the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts to get the skiing types and we certainly don’t have a lake that freezes over like Lake George. It’s the innovative things, like utilizing a frozen lake, that help out cities and towns that rely on tourism.
I have to say, Lake George takes the cake on this one. The Lake George Winter Carnival continues this weekend, February 22nd-23rd with its final event weekend. You can check out this weekend’s events on their website.
The author thanks Lina DeJesus, Alexandra Fidalgo, Nicole Martinez and Taylor Wilke for editing input. Special thanks to Nicole Martinez for photo contribution.
Maxx Fidalgo, standing on Lake George, with the Adirondacks as backdrop Photo taken by Nicole Martinez
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