Carry Bay Shoreline Beach sits along a bend in Route 2, where the road hugs Lake Champlain's edge and the landscape opens into something almost prairie-wide. The Adirondacks rise purple and improbable on the western horizon, close enough that you can trace their ridgelines but far enough to feel like another country. The beach itself is a modest affair—more shoreline than resort—with a gentle slope of sand giving way to smooth stones and shallow water that warms under the summer sun.
“One of the few public lake access points on North Hero's western shore offering unobstructed Adirondack views across open water.”
Credit: Flickrwreck below the cliffs lands end
You wade in slowly here, feeling your way over the lake bottom, while swallows dip and wheel overhead. The water is bracingly cold in June, pleasantly cool by August. Kayakers glide past on their way to nearby Knight Island, and occasionally a loon surfaces just offshore, curious and unafraid. The shoreline curves into quiet coves where cattails whisper and turtles sun themselves on half-submerged logs.
What Carry Bay lacks in amenities—there's little beyond a small parking area—it repays in solitude and sweep. This is Lake Champlain at its most open and unadorned, a place where the view matters more than the infrastructure. Bring a blanket, a good book, and perhaps a kayak strapped to your roof rack. The beach belongs mostly to those who know to look for it, tucked between apple orchards and dairy farms on an island that still feels suspended in an earlier, quieter century.
