Mount Defiance

Mount Defiance is a low summit with cannons and a picnic pavilion above Fort Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain. If you’re visiting the fort, go up for the view: from the ridge, you can see the fort’s narrow peninsula below and understand why control of this hill mattered. It’s a focused viewpoint stop with a short final climb.

The seasonal access road reaches the upper parking lot, or you can walk from its gate, about a mile each way (roughly 2.2 miles round trip). The road is narrow and steep, and RVs and buses aren’t permitted. The pavilion is still a short, steep walk uphill from the upper lot, so the last part isn’t step-free. Mount Defiance is included with Fort Ticonderoga admission or can be bought separately at the base; check the current schedule before making the detour.

The summit looks over Fort Ticonderoga, Lake Champlain, and Vermont’s Green Mountains. For a photo, put one of the cannons in the foreground with the fort on its peninsula beyond; a wide frame shows the lake and mountains but makes the fort tiny.

During the 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga, British forces positioned artillery on Mount Defiance. The American garrison withdrew from the fort once the heights above it were occupied. From the pavilion, the gap between the wooded summit and the low peninsula gives that choice some scale.

A pavilion and picnic tables at the summit make lunch an easy fit, but there’s no food service described. Restrooms and drinking water aren’t identified for the summit, so plan a restroom stop and bring water before heading up.