Lake George from Prospect Mountain
— — the long water seen from a held breath.
Not only on a wall.
“Prospect Mountain rises straight up from the south end of Lake George, and a five-and-a-half-mile road, the Veterans Memorial Highway, climbs it. From the summit the lake unspools north for thirty-two miles between the Tongue Range and the Black Mountain ridge, with the green Adirondacks stacking behind. On a clear day, four states show: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the long blue edge of the High Peaks. The road opens with the season, late spring through fall, and closes once the weather turns the switchbacks over.
Lake George from Prospect Mountain, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Prospect Mountain stands at the southern end of Lake George, in Warren County, New York, inside the six-million-acre Adirondack Park. The summit reaches 2,030 feet, and a paved auto road — the Veterans Memorial Highway — climbs roughly 1,500 feet over five and a half miles from U.S. Route 9. The highway is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as part of Prospect Mountain State Park. From a parking shoulder near the top, a shuttle or a short walk carries visitors the last stretch to the viewing platforms above the lake.
From the summit, the eye runs the full thirty-two-mile length of Lake George, north toward Ticonderoga, with the Tongue Mountain Range on the west shore and the Black Mountain ridge holding the east. On a clear day visitors can pick out terrain in four states — New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the southern Adirondack High Peaks. The original incline railway that once lifted passengers up the mountain operated from 1895 until 1903, and a stone counterweight and gear remains near the upper road as a small interpretive site.
The Veterans Memorial Highway is open seasonally, generally from late May through late October, and closes for the winter once the upper switchbacks ice over. There is a per-vehicle fee at the toll booth near the base, and the road is one-way uphill for the upper section. A foot trail also reaches the summit from the village of Lake George — about a 1.6-mile climb, popular in the morning before the road traffic builds. Weekend afternoons in foliage season fill the upper lot, and earlier arrivals get the cleaner air over the lake.