216. Vermont Fall Foliage Road Trip - Peak Color, Mountain Roads, and Vermont Charm

0:01 I'm Johnny Mac, and travel is back. Today's episode is powered by AI. You make it to Vermont just as the hills flip the switch to full color. Good call. Don't overthink it. You're here to drive a little, walk a lot, and eat anything with maple, apples, or cheddar. Grab a windshield squeegee at the first gas station you see, top off the coffee, and roll down by Lake Champlain to get your bearings. Start on the Burlington waterfront. Park by Waterfront Park if you can, toss on a light jacket, and walk the paved path along the lake. The air's clean, there's usually a couple of sailboats out, and the Adirondacks sit blue on the horizon like a postcard backdrop. If you want something moving but not a full-on hike, rent a bike and cruise the Burlington Greenway. A little farther out, the Island Line Trail rides on an old rail causeway over the water. When the bike ferry's running on fall weekends, you can cross the gap and feel like you're pedaling through the lake itself. Check the ferry schedule before you build your day around it, but if it lines up, it's one of those only-in-this-place moments. Back up the hill, Church Street gives you an easy food and people-watching stroll.

1:01 Go light for breakfast, something you can eat standing up. A Montreal-style bagel at Meyers down on Pine Street hits just right. If you're more of a pastry and coffee person, August 1st near South Champlain Street does flaky croissants and breakfast sandwiches that don't weigh you down. Don't linger too long, that first full-color drive is calling. And you'll have time for the shops later. If you've got an extra hour and the weather's crisp and clear, head north on Route 2 to the Champlain Islands. It's flat, driving over the water with little causeways linking one island to the next. Stop in South Hero at Hackett's Orchard for a quick bag of apples and donuts still warm from the fryer. They'll hand you a small brown bag with sugar dust that gets everywhere. Worth it. Keep rolling up to North Hero and grab a sandwich from Hero's Welcome, an old general store right on the lake with a porch that looks like it was designed for a fall picnic. You won't find much to do here besides slow down and stare at water and maples, and that's kind of the point.

1:50 Drop back toward the mountains on Route 89 or the back roads and aim for Waterbury and Stowe. This is where the roads start to tilt and the colors stack up hill after hill. In Waterbury Center, you'll see a big old red barn that's actually the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. It's touristy, yes, but you're not above a paper cup of fresh-pressed cider and a donut while you stand next to a giant crate of apples. If the parking lot is chaos, you can always try Stowe Cider in town later where you can sit down and taste a flight that's not all sweet. Stowe itself feels built for an easy fall afternoon. Park once and forget the car for a bit. The Stowe Recreation Path is a paved walking and biking trail that drifts behind inns and meadows for a few miles. Rent a bike at one of the shops or just walk until you feel like you've earned lunch.

2:30 If you want a splash of nature without dedicating your whole day, Bingham Falls is an easy hike off Route 108. Well-traveled, short, and the kind of place where you can sit on a rock and feel the spray while the trees around you make their best argument for why you drove up here. If you brought hiking shoes and you're feeling ambitious, drive up into Smuggler's Notch. Route 108 squeezes through giant boulders and cliffs like some scenic road test. It's narrow. If you see a warning about trucks, believe it. You're not a truck, but the idea here is to go slow, use the pullouts, and maybe pretend the guardrails are closer than they are so you keep it mellow. Park where you can near the top and walk up to Sterling Pond. It's about a mile and a half uphill, steady but not brutal, and it drops you at a small lake cradled by low peaks with the leaves stacked in layers around you. Take a breath. Take a photo and head back before you burn your legs out on day one.

3:20 Stowe does food well without getting too fancy. If you want pizza and a beer without a whole production, Picasso is your friend. If you're just fishing for a caffeine top-up, Black Cap around the corner will hand you a latte and get you back to the car quickly. People will tell you to line up for a heady topper at the Alchemist, and if beer collecting is your thing, go for it. If not, there's a lager with your name on it at the Von Trapp Brewery outside town where you can sit outside, look at hills, and realize that this is the vacation you actually needed. When you're ready to trade tourists for townies, slide over to Montpelier. It's the smallest state capital in the country, and it feels like it. Park near Main Street and do an easy lap. You'll spot the gold dome peeking over the trees. You'll pass a couple of bookshops, and you'll probably end up at Capitol Grounds because that front window just pulls you in.

4:03 They'll make you a maple latte without blinking. The downtown's compact, so you can be in and out with a sandwich and back to your car in under an hour. That said, don't treat it like a pit stop. Walk up into Hubbard Park if you've got a little time. It's one of those city parks that turns into a real forest about 10 steps off the road. Head to the Old Stone Tower and climb it for a view of rooftops and hills doing that green-orange-red thing if you want the maple story without driving two hours to a sugar bush down a dirt road. Morse Farm Maple Sugar Works is five minutes north of town. It's family-run, there are old sugar house artifacts hanging on the walls, and you can taste the different grades of syrup from light to dark. If they've got maple creamies going, that's soft serve with maple syrup folded in. Vermont 101. Cleanup is just licking your fingers. Ten minutes down the highway in Middlesex, Red Hen Baking sits practically next to the exit ramp. The bread smell hits you from the parking lot. Order a bowl of soup and a thick slice or a sandwich you can eat in the car if you overscheduled your afternoon.

4:56 It's the kind of bakery where you feel proud of yourself for choosing something simple. Then slide over to Bear, which is built on granite. Literally. Head for Hope Cemetery, where local stoneworkers put their best work on their own monuments. It's quiet. It's not creepy. You walk slowly and nod at these insane sculptures carved with a level of skill that kind of melts your brain. If you want to see the source, the Rock of Ages quarry just outside town has a visitor's center and a short tour to an overlook of the Big Pit, where they've been carving out blocks for over a century. Double-check hours in fall because places like to shave an hour here and there as the days get shorter. From Bayer, run east on Route 2 toward the Northeast Kingdom. You'll pass through Danville and maybe want to pull over every four minutes for a photo. Do it once, not 12 times. Peacham is the village that shows up on half the calendars you've seen, and when you get there, you'll see why. White steeple, red barns, hills rolling out behind like someone ironed them flat and then shook them out. Here's the tip. Stay on the pavement and park respectfully. A lot of the shots you see online are from people standing in someone's driveway.

5:55 That's not your move. Use the village green, get your picture, and then grab a cookie at the little store so you're leaving a couple of dollars behind. Keep going to Westmore and Lake Willoughby, which looks like a fjord that accidentally landed in Vermont. Park at the South Beach Lot and take the Mount Pisgah South Trail up to the overlooks. It's a climb and the trail can be leaf slick. But you get those wild clifftop views of the lake with Mount Hoar across from you. Everything edged in color. Bring a layer. Wind can cut up there even on a sunny day. If you're not up for a hike, just sit on the beach a minute and listen to the water slap at the rocks while you watch the light change on the ridges. If you've got a little biker in you, swing through East Berk. Kingdom Trails is the legend around here. Rolling, well-built single track that welcomes all levels. In fall, you ride through tunnels of color that feel like a child's drawing come to life. If bikes aren't your thing, grab a coffee at Cafe Lottie and watch muddy people roll by with big grins. On fall weekends, the chairlift at Burke Mountain sometimes runs for leaf peepers. There's also an auto road that takes you up for a summit view if the legs are shot and the weather's clear. Greensboro gives you Willie's Store, which is one of those general stores that somehow sells everything you forgot you needed, plus the cheese you didn't know you wanted. If you're into beer, Hill Farmstead's hides out on dirt roads nearby. Just keep in mind their hours are precise and small-town. Check before you drive 20 minutes into the woods. Grab a couple of bottles for when you're parked for the night, not for now. Glover's Bread and Puppet Museum is unlike anything else you'll see on this trip. It's a big barn stuffed with decades of giant paper mosh theater puppets. Sounds odd. Is odd. But

7:27 in a way, that kind of makes you happy you took the turn. A donation at the door, a slow walk, and maybe a pizza at Parker Pie afterward, and you've got a perfect kingdom afternoon. Now ease south. You've knocked out the northern part of the state, so aim for Route 100 and let it carry you down through the Mad River Valley. Waitsfield and Warren feel like they exist mostly to be charming. In October, park near the covered bridge in Waitsfield and peek over the side at the river curling under stone. If your stomach makes the call, Lawson's Finest Liquids has a modern taproom where the vibe is friendly and the pours are well-behaved. But you're driving, so think small and slow. Across the road, the Mad River Taste Place lays out Vermont on a plate. Cheese samples, cured meats, a few spreads, so you can build a picnic that eats like a meal. If it's dinnertime and you're open to a 90-minute wait because things that are good take time... American flatbread at LaRoe Farm is beloved for a reason. It's a barn, it's a fire, it's pizza with local toppings that just works. If patience isn't your thing tonight, pick something up from a deli and sit at a pull-off where the fields open and the mountains line up behind them. The Mad River Path offers easy walking if you need to move after that. No big hills, just meadows and riverbank. Roll south into Granville Golf, where the road tucks between cliffs and hemlocks, and suddenly you feel like you drove into early October a week late.

8:42 There's a little boardwalk at Moss Glen Falls. Yep, there are two Moss Glens in Vermont, and this one's right off the main road. Stretch, get the mist on your face, and try not to compare it to the earlier falls. They both win. The village of Rochester sneaks up right after. There's a green, a bookstore with a cafe, and a great argument for sitting on a bench and letting 20 minutes slide away while the leaves blow around. Cut east on Route 107 and join I-89 for a couple exits if you want speed or drift back roads to Woodstock. It's postcard pretty without being precious. Park the car in a legal spot and wander. The middle bridge arches over the Otokuchi River, and if you walk onto it, you get that framed shot of the water, the trees, and the old houses that feels like a cliché until you're taking your own. Duck into Monver Cafe if you need a cup or a cookie, and then head up the easy carriage roads in Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park to Mount Tom. You can do a quick up and back to South Peak for a view down over the rooftops and church steeples or take the loop around the Pogue, a quiet pond tucked into the hills. It's good in all weather. On a cloudy day, the colors pop. On a sunny day, you'll get the sunlight slanting across the hills and you'll think someone turned on a filter a few miles east. Catchy Gorge gives you the Vermont's Little Grand Canyon line that locals roll their eyes at, but you'll still walk to the bridge and lean over because humans lean over railings. Better yet, take the trail down into the gorge and sit by the river. It's not a hard hike, but the footing can be leaf slick.

10:04 So step lightly across the road. Simon Pierce runs glass blowing demonstrations in the mill. If you time it right, you can watch someone pull a bowl out of a glowing blob and shape it like they're playing an instrument. It's hypnotic. You don't have to buy a thing. Dinner around here. Worthy Kitchen on the edge of Woodstock keeps it casual. Burgers, good salads, local beers, and you don't need a tie or a reservation to feel welcome. If you want to put maple behind the knee rather than on a pancake, take the little road out to Sugarbush Farm. It winds up a hill past cows that have seen this before. Inside, you can taste a couple of cheeses and a few grades of syrup without anyone doing a hard sell. It's low-key, and the view back down the valley ain't bad. Continue south to Manchester on Route 7, which runs like a spine down the western side of the state. Mostly give yourself room. Leave the schedule a little loose so you can pull over for the view that surprises you instead of sprinting to the one from last year's calendar. If a small town has a sign for a harvest fair, park the car and go look.

11:00 If the clouds move in and the color goes dull, take the trail anyway and listen to the leaves under your shoes. That's fall here. It's not complicated. It's a bunch of little moments that add up to something bigger and the road between them is half the fun. I'm Johnny Mac and travel is back. Follow Travel is Back wherever you listen to podcasts and find all 200-plus destinations in our back catalogue.