Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Road, on the promontory where Lake George flows into Lake Champlain. Fort Ticonderoga sits on 2,000-plus acres of historic landscape, the strategic ground that gave both the French and the British (and then Ethan Allen and the Continentals) reason to fight for it through the 18th century. The current fort is a working reconstruction; the original was largely scrapped by the late 1800s. The daily program is the reason to come. Living-history interpreters run musket and artillery demonstrations on a posted schedule, and the guided tours work harder at primary-source detail than most reenactment sites. The King's Garden is the restored 18th-century formal garden, worth the walk on its own. The seasonal six-acre corn maze in late summer is the family draw. The Carillon runs narrated cruises on Lake Champlain. Tickets are valid for two consecutive days, which is the right framing because one visit doesn't cover the museum collection (one of the better 18th-century holdings in North America). On-site dining ranges from farm-to-fork to casual. Open seasonally, roughly early May through late October. Don't miss the view from Mount Defiance above the fort.