Scenes of Vermont Forums

Hi, Me again, Still nothing concrete. How is the Ludlow/ Okemo area on these dates? should I go more south? Found a cute B&B in Proctorsville??? What is the scoop there? Also found a cute house to rent in Okemo area. what are your thoughts?? need your help! Thanks!

My rule of thumb says, if you have found a place to stay in Vt. during foliage season take it. Rooms are hard to find at that time. You will be close enough to peak foliage so you can reach it in less than an hour.For a nice ride, take route 103 south to route 11 Chester, Vt. and turn right. Look for route 35 on your left and drive that south to Grafton. Check out the village and then take the Townshend Road and check out the Grafton Cheese Factory and their yummy cheese. Finish the Townshend Road to route 35 and turn right. Finish route 35 to route 30 in Townshend and turn right. Take route 30 west to the Scott Covered Bridge. Turn around and go back to Townshend and finish route 30 to route US 5 in Brattleboro. Turn left and do route US 5 north to route 103 north of Bellows Falls,Vt. Take route 103 back "home". Next day do route 100 south to route 9 west in Wilmington,Vt.. Turn right and take route 9 west to Bennington. In Bennington take route 7A (NOT US7)north to Manchester. If it's a nice day you may want to do the Skyline Drive to the top of Mt. Equinox. It's between Arlinton and Manchester on route 7A. It's paved to the top. From Manchester take route 11/30 east to Londonderry and take route 100 north back to Ludlow.

What is at peak depends on elevation and what you consider "at peak". Most people consider peak to be when all or pretty much all trees have turned from green, even if many are bare; others (like me) consider it past peak when many of the trees have lost leaves.

In mid-October, southern VT will be mostly colored at the lower elevations.. but the higher elevations will be past peak. I just drove over route 9 today between Wilmington and Bennington and there is a fair bit of color in the mountains, almost none in the valleys. --c

Thanks very much for all of the info. I really would like to know if the Okemo/Ludlow area is too much of a high elevation at that time. I know south is good and I know we could drive anywhere but I don't want to be surrounded by a bunch of bare trees, if that area is too high. That would be aweful. I know it is very hard to pinpoint, but where will I have the best luck in finding bright.. "on fire" color at that time...and not empty trees...I am going to confirm one place or another by Friday. There is also a place I found in Brattleboro....if I need south. Thanks

I just looked through my pix from last year and it just so happened that I was in Londonderry (just south of Ludlow) last year on October 11th. The color was around peak then, and pretty nice. This year things seem to be going a bit faster than last year, at least so far. I think you will be okay, though I am really not sure. --c

Brattleboro is a good place to start from. You will have some great rides near there. Route 30 through Newfane and Townshend and then roue 35 north to Grafton is a ride nice with good color. Route 30 to Manchester and then route 7A south to Bennington and then route 9 east back to Brattleboro should be nice,but you may have some bare spots in the highlands. Route US 5 north from Brattleboro is a nice ride now that I-91 has stolen all the traffic.I wish I had more time to wander around down there.