Champlain Islands

The winter pathway to Knight Island happens to begin across from Hero’s Welcome, a what-they-haven’t-got-you-don’t-need general store where locals and visitors alike buy provisions and, in warmer weather, rent canoes and kayaks, bikes, and paddleboards. It’s a special summer treat to grab a sandwich at the store for an alfresco lunch at the nearby waterside deck. (In colder months, of course, a steaming mug of Hero’s Welcome hot chocolate is the reward you seek.)

If Grand Isle County is Vermont’s offshore discovery, then tiny Isle La Motte, population roughly 500, is the county’s own discovery—the island getaway within the Islands. This is where Europeans first visited Vermont. In 1609, French explorer Samuel de Champlain made a stop here on his maiden trip along the lake that would eventually bear his name. Nearly 60 years later, French soldiers built a fort as a southern outpost of their Quebec domain. Today this corner of Isle La Motte is home to the Roman Catholic St. Anne’s Shrine, a popular pilgrimage destination.

A northward ramble through the Champlain Islands ends at Isle La Motte, but in a grander sense it also ends more than 400 million years ago. That’s according to the fossils at the now high-and-dry Chazy Reef. These are relics you may have encountered before, because they speckle the dark limestone that was quarried here for use in places like New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

So while they remain staunchly “off the beaten path,” the Champlain Islands have left their mark on the wider world. And they continue to leave their mark on travelers ready to venture beyond the mainland to relax, reconnect, and make memories in a Vermont region like no other.