Statewide Travels

[VT Traveler]

Greetings fellow leaf peepers!

Been reading these posts for last two weeks and finally decided to add my two cents...

Here's my write-up of my journey last weekend:

Bennington was pretty with many trees still slightly green but many yellows and oranges.
Being a historical town, there were many museums, galleries and local shops etc. to keep us busy on a rainy day.

With the rainy weather, decided what's the rush as my final point was Newport Center that evening about 3-4 hours away. Took Rt. 9 over to Wilmington, which is another nice town to visit with the many interesting shops in the center of town. Leaves were very pretty as you skirt around onto Rt. 100 and travel north.

There is still lots of color to change in the southern part of the state. This week into weekend should be very nice.

We drove all the way up Rt. 100 to Newport, which is the BEST route to take in Vermont if you wish to tour many quaint villages and have a relaxing ride avoiding many of the highways and hustle bustle of the big cities. There are lots of bed and breakfasts and variety of yummy stores and restaurants along the way. You also pass by many ski areas which have a ton of things to do.

Weston is another town noteworthy to visit along with Stowe with it's many shops etc.

The leaves were different from the southern, central and northern part of the state. Last weekend the prettiest colors were up in the Jay Peak area in the northeast Kingdom.

On Sunday, our route took us over to Jay Peak traveling down 242 to Montgomery, which has seven covered bridges and great town to bike ride around. Headed through 58 over Hazens Notch which had outstanding color and on back roads to my house in Newport Center. Pretty much anything above Rt. 89 north had the best color last weekend.

On Monday, headed south on 14 from Newport all the way down about 100 miles about two hous to Royalton. Very pretty as you travel much of the way down in a valley through many farmlands and towns and villages once again.

From 14 we took 107 over to 4 to Rutland about another hour. Here is where the colors were becoming more vibrant and should be awesome in that area next weekend.
From there down Rt. 7 down along the other side of the green mountains back to Bennington about another hour. This is a very pretty parkway type route and had alot of pretty views on a nice day.

From there back to NJ. I travel to VT quite often my whole life and this is the first autumn the leaves are a week behind. Even with the rain this week it is still very pretty throughout the entire state and there is lots to do and see. The best way is to get off the main highways and travel the back roads.

Again, my favorite route is Rt. 100 a famous switch back type of road which is basically like a backbone of the state.

Good luck fellow leaf peepers and enjoy the remainder of the '05 fall foliage season!

VT Traveler