BEACHES AROUND BURLINGTON

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Vermont’s beaches and swimming holes are legendary, and as fun to discover as to jump, soak and dunk in. The Burlington waterfront on Lake Champlain is a mix of sandy beaches and redstone shoreline. At Oakledge Park, families frolic along the warm and shallow shoreline, where it feels like you can walk halfway to New York before you’re in deeper than your knees. Further south within the park, natural outcroppings create semi-private oases for swimming, sunning, or picnicking. Competitive swimmers gather at North Beach to fine-tune their open water swimming skills, while others just come to relax and to enjoy Vermont’s sandiest shorefront. If you’re willing to walk or pedal, venture to the northern end of Burlington’s Bike Path, and join other bathers in soaking up the sun before you take a refreshing plunge into the lake along the old railroad bed now called the Colchester Causeway, which is stone’s throw from the Champlain Islands. Every lakeside town has its sandy or rocky public beach. A few exits south of Burlington, Huntington Gorge is a natural wonder where the river has carved a canyon that plunges into a welcoming pool that’s also the best vantage point to safely see this natural wonder. In nearby Bolton, the three-tiered waterfall called the Potholes is one of Vermont’s most stunning and unusual swimming holes. The emerald green river splashes through swimming pools, wading pools, with places to picnic and nature-bathe on the pebble shores. Descending from the summit of Camel’s Hump, Vermont’s third highest peak, it’s hard to decide which spot to stop along the mountain stream that borders the trail. The best news is, you can’t go wrong.

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