The bumper-to-bumper traffic near Exit 20 is at its summer peak, the streets of Lake George crowded and noisy, the motels all the way to Bolton Landing bustling.
But in a half hour, anyone can be looking across the breadth of Lake George by themselves, simply by taking the shore less traveled.
Follow Route 149 about 5.5 miles east toward Fort Ann and then take Buttermilk Falls Road, a left, another 12.5 miles -- it becomes a well-maintained dirt road, Sly Pond Road, then Shelving Rock Road -- and stop just before the public road ends at a private gate.
From there, it's less than a 10-minute walk until a family can picnic on glacial rocks at the water's edge in complete solitude, or close to it.
One good-size parking area and a few turnouts offer rough paths down to the state-owned shoreline, just below where the Lake George islands start.
From the big parking lot, a downhill trail takes hikers to a peninsula opposite an island where boats will be moored. To the right, a broad state-built hiking trail running a half-mile or so along the shore offers views across open water, and places to picnic where the waves lap the rocks.
A trail to the left just before reaching the peninsula leads quickly to a foot bridge across Shelving Rock Brook. Cross the bridge and take a left onto a rough trail, following the stream. There are some steep scrambles and a deadfall pine so big children may need to be lifted over it, but the reward is a couple of small but lovely cascades, and then a spectacular 50-foot waterfall -- Shelving Rock Falls -- that hikers can often have all to themselves. Scramble up past the falls and there's another wide state trail, leading in five minutes to a bridge on Shelving Rock Road. YouÕll remember having crossed it.
From the bridge, it's a 10-minute walk along the road back to the parking area -- and completion of a loop hike with spectacular waters, solitude with nature, and that takes less than an hour.
Shelving Rock Road is also the route to the worthwhile climbs at Sleeping Beauty and Shelving Rock Mountain, and to a back route up Buck Mountain, requiring less climbing than the lakeshore route.
