Diamond Island, Lake George, NY

We love visiting Lake George in Upstate New York, and it’s a treat when we can go out to the islands on a boat with friends.  On a recent visit, we checked out Diamond Island.

You can only get here by boat, as it is located in the middle of Lake George. 

You also need a reservation so that you can use one of the docks.

According to LakeGeorge.com, “Diamond Island is a small picnic island on Lake George near Long Island. It is the southern most island and closest to the village with four picnic areas featuring charcoal grills, fireplaces, and tables.  Diamond Island has one picnic shelter that is reservable, and docks 1 and 2 are recognized as sailboat-friendly. There are 6 docking sites in total around the picnic island.”

We reserved first thing in the morning and then headed to the island. On busy days, like hot days or holidays, I would recommend getting your reservation early, before docks are taken.

We set up at our dock for the morning.

The island is small, but has the basics, including picnic tables and bathrooms. This is always a must for me, because bringing kids out for the day, bathrooms are a necessity.

There are picnic areas around the island, and we set up with a tablecloth and brought coolers with food, paper plates, etc.  There are no garbage receptacles, so we always bring our own trash bags.

There is a pavilion as well, but you have to reserve it in advance.

There are porta-potties on the island, which is nice for when you have kids.  We usually decide on a location on the lake based on if there is a bathroom or not, so it is nice to have some kind of restrooms.

We walked over to the end of the island, where there is a monument that commemorates the historical activities that took place on Diamond Island. There was a bloody and intense battle there during the American Revolution. The Peach Obelisk was made from stone from Prospect Mountain, and is installed at the north end of the island.

The views from the island are beautiful.

There are also places along the western side of the island where people jump off the cliffs into the water.  While we haven’t done this, we usually see people jumping off every time we come to Diamond Island.

We spent most of the day swimming, relaxing, and took a break for lunch.

My husband and kids swam over to the tiny island, snorkeling and exploring.

The water is clear and beautiful, and it was a perfect day on the lake.