Although fall is just beginning in my beautiful home state of Connecticut, where I can chase the color to the shoreline through early November, my heart still longs for Vermont! Another day trip on tap to Southern Vermont reeled in some absolutely gorgeous peak colors in the Manchester route 7 corridor, our ultimate destination for the day. A couple more trips north on tap in the near future just for hiking,so let's just start from the beginning....
We left northern CT around 9 and headed up through some back roads of south central Mass for a change of pace. We took the Mass Pike West to NY State 22 north and got off near Jiminy Peak (beautiful mid stage color) and headed to Williamstown, MA via route 43 to route 7 north. I love the college vibe there (Williams College), seeing all the students milling around such a New Englandy preppy type campus. We hit some showers and lots of clouds and I was getting a little nervous that the weather was heading downhill. I had my head buried in my phone watching the radar and saying to my ever patient driver, it's just cloudy in Manchester, no rain and the sun will be out. No comment here from the bandstand!
Heading north to Pownal, we took a back road called Cedar Hill Road. Guess what? The rain stopped but still a lot of low clouds. Cedar Hill Road was really nice. We turned left on North Pownal Road and then right on Carpenter Hill Road (one of my favorite scenic dirt roads in Pownal). My friend Charles (ixl) from this forum told me about Carpenter Hill many years ago and it is just amazing. At the summit of the road, the views of the valley below and surrounding mountains is excellent. You can even see the Bennington Monument in the distance which makes it “picture perfect”. The color was peak at the high elevations and the views of the pristine orchards against the foliage backdrop was just what I was waiting for. As we descended, the color was turning to mid stage. There are some nice back roads around the summit and one we took (upon my insistance) many years ago (maybe Carpenter Hill West to the Mt. Anthony Road I think it was) turned into a class 4 and then a field. Long story, another time.
We then continued through Bennington straight up to the Manchester corridor to the exit for Manchester Center/route 30 to Dorset. The color was peak on the mountains paralleling route 7, oh yeah, eye candy both sides. I'm sure it continued that way up to Wallingford. The clouds lifted, random spotty showers, and then SUN!
Yahoo! Thank you Vermont! (And no comment once again from the ever patient driver). We then drove north on 30 to Dorset so I could make the tail end of the Dorset Farmers Market which has just moved indoors. I guess we were a bit late so I just got cider donuts. I love it when it is held outside because I think it is larger with more food venues and more crafts and on a fall day, it just is the best!Then we headed to my favorite dirt back road loop in Dorset. Dorset Hollow Road to Upper Dorset Hollow Road to Lower Hollow Road back to 30. We didn't have time to go on Kirby Hollow Road which is beautiful. Let me say, the color was peak all around the Hollows with mountains glowing. If you can get there in the next day or two, this loop is wonderful. I can see myself living in Dorset on Upper Dorset Hollow for sure! You just have to be there to see these back roads. Another back road you might enjoy is Dorset West Road to Nichols Hill Road. Since we were running out of time, we just took route 11 back to Chester and then 91 south. Color was iffy around Chester, couldn't make sense of the foliage here because then it turned abruptly green.
There is a lot more color forthcoming in lower Southern Vermont as the mountains were summer green all the way down to the Mass border. Don't give up yet! Come to Southern Vermont!
