Stowe, Oct 1 or Oct 10

[Alex]

Hi! We have plans to visit Stowe from Oct 10 thru Oct 13. According to some sights I have visited we may miss peak. I was thinking of moving our trip to Oct. 1 thru Oct. 5. What do you think?

Alex

[admin]

I would move up the date of your trip, or concentrate your trip on the south and low lying areas that are late to change. Foliage's progression appears to be exactly on schedule. It is close to the approximations shown in our maps. Things could change, but it looks that way now.

[pwt54]

Absolutely, move it up. I was wandering around the Northeast Kingdom today and there is some good early color up there. This coming weekend should be real nice up there.

[Alex]

Thank you for your recommendations. I called today and pushed it up one week as you suggested. The person at the resort tried to convince me to keep it the same but I feel that both of your recommendations are more justifed.

Thanks again....

Alex

[pwt54]

Good going. At that time you will be near the end of the peak colors up there. Plan your trips south of Stowe. One road a lot of folks overlook is route 12 from Morrisville south to route US 5 in Hartland. Take route 100 north out of Stowe to the Morrisville. At the flashing red light go straight. In a few hundred feet you come to a "Y" intersection. Bear right for route 12 south. When you come to a "T" intersection in Montpelier, turn left and go to main street. Turn right on main street and your are on route 12 south again. In Northfield Falls, look for the Falls General Store on the right. Take the road just before to see 3 covered bridges. The first 2 are close together, the third one is 1/2 mile farther. Turn around and go back to route 12 and turn right. Go 1/3 of a mile and look for a sign that says Slaughterhouse Road on the right. Take that road for the fourth covered bridge. It's the best one. Go back to route 12. Take route 12 south to Bethel. At the south end of the village the road takes a big dip. At the bottom of the dip turn right to take route 107 to route 12. Now you have a choice. You can take route 12 south to Woodstock or you continue route 107 to route 100 north to Stowe. It's a tough choice. Time may be a factor. It's about 2 hours to Stowe on route 100 during foliage season. And it's one of the most popular routes in foliage season. I just flipped a coin -- it's route 100 north. Another good loop is route 14 south to route 110 north. Take I - 89 south to exit 5. Follow the access road route 64 to the end in Williamstown and turn right. Take route 14 south to East Brookfield and take route 65 west to Brookfield and the Floating Bridge. Don't let the water bother you. Go ahead and drive over it and turn around and drive back. Just don't splash the fishermen. Go back to route 14 south. Have a late breakfast/ early lunch at Eaton's Sugarhouse. Continue route 14 south to route 110 north in South Royalton. You will end up at route 302 in East Barre. Turn left and go to Barre and head for home. Goota go, the Red Sox are on !!

[Alex]

Hi PWT54,

Thanks for the great itinerary. We have been going to Stowe for a few years now and have always gone the weekend of Columbus Day. Some years were perfect, some were not so perfect.

I remember one year when it was very warm and gorgeous the day we got there and the following day. But the next day it was cold and it had rained so hard that most of the leaves had fallen.

Last year was the first year without the kids so we decided to take our time and take the slow ride up route 100. It was amazing. We stopped at the falls where someone was selling maple syrup and there was quite a crowd.

I was determined to see a big moose before the end of our trip, so we grabbed a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers and headed north. We saw a lot of beautiful sites and almost made it into Canada. The ride was fun but we didn't see any moose. I don't think we'll be doing that this year since moose are supposedly settling down in New York state. We live in Rochester where there are plenty of deer, just no moose yet!

Thanks again for all your help. I'll make sure we take a map and a GPS unit to prevent us from getting lost from all those Y's, T's, and U turns!

Alex

[pwt54]

All those "Y" "U" and "T"s aren't that bad. Have you done the Moss Glens Falls in Stowe? Take route 100 north from Stowe. About 2 miles you come to a 1/2 mile straight strech with a farm on the left. At the end of the straight stretch route 100 take a hard left turn. You go straight on the Randolph Road. Go about 1/4 mile and take the Moss Glen Falls road on the right. in about a mile the road takes a hard right turn (we like our turns hard up here) and park at the parking lot at the top of the curve. It's a short hike to the falls. Have you done Bingham Falls off route 108? Park in the parking lot just north of the Inn At The Mountain and take the trail across the road.

[Alex]

Thanks for the names of the two falls. We have not been to either one before and will make sure to bring our hiking shoes. I saw some great pictures just now of moss glen #2 (stowe) just now. Hopefully the roads won't be too narrow either. Any other ideas you have will be greatly appreciated. We found a spot north of Stowe that included a beautiful small lake. The hills behind it were full of color and made a gorgeous panoramic picture due to the reflection in the calm water. Hopefully we can find that lake this time too.

Alex

[pwt54]

That sounds like Lake Elmore on route 12. Check out the "Foliage and Waterfalls" posting for a great waterfalls listing. If you do the Moss Glen Falls in Granville, try Texas Falls off route 125 just south of there.

[FloridaDan]

I know year to year can be different but I had my wedding in Stowe last year on the weekend of Oct 18-20 and the color was still rather nice. Spotty color in places but most leaves were still on the trees. Maybe I had a different perspective on this since first time seeing fall colors but I had no complaints.

[Broomrider]

The simple answer to this is "ANYTIME IS A GOOD TIME IN VERMONT!!". My husband and I have been "leaf peepers" for many years and every year it's the same debate- go early (but you may miss peak) or go later (peak may have missed you). Every year is different and generally you will find great color somewhere in the first two weeks of October. Guessing when peak is and scheduling the vacation is half of the fun and enjoying the leaves and debating about the color from other years is the other half. Enjoy your trip!!!

[Alex]

Hi PWT54..... Thanks for all the advice. We're off to Stowe... Wish the weather was going to be better. This morning felt like a nice warm autumn day. But by 4:00, it felt more like Winter!!!! Guess we'll be bringing our winter jackets and umbrellas! Take care!

Alex

[Alex]

Arrived in Stowe last night. We altered our way in by accident but found the new route wonderful. Saw a hot air balloon, beautiful Gorge. Drove through Woodstock, what a quaint area. The colors are nice but not as colorful as we had expected. Our thinking now is that we probably should have stuck to our original plans of arriving on the 10th. Oh well... maybe the next few days will explode with color! But we love stowe, plenty to see and do and plenty of great food!!!

[GIC]

That gorge you made reference to in your post is known as Quechee Gorge,also known as “Vermonts Little Grand Canyon”. Located on Rt. 4 not to far west of HWY 89. I had a very early morning view of the gorge during light fog and misty conditions. I to captured a marvelous view of a purple hot air balloon lowering down in to the gorge. Who ever were in the balloon must have been awed at the view, as I was seeing them floating down. I took some excellent photos of that brief occurrence.
As for Woodstock it is just as you described. Not much color as expected, of course I was there at a much earlier date. There is a nice covered bridge toward the end the center of the village located on the right-hand side.

[Alex]

Hi, we drove up to the north kingdom yesterday during the rain and saw some beautiful color. It was quite amazing, especially when the rain stopped and the sun came out. We even got our first snow squal while we were high up in the mountains. The 100 miles we put on were well worth it! Today is clear and sunny, so time to hit the bike trails. That Gorge was nice and we did see a number of bridges on our drive.