Exploring Vermont: The Green Mountain State

Near the Green Mountains of Vermont, we found ourselves camping at Abel Mountain Campground. Before arriving I had high hopes for this spot which featured photos of a lovely green country setting. I was looking forward to the river flowing through the campground. It was advertised as a great place for swimming, rafting and tubing. I had visions of myself floating down the stream in an intertube. While checking in at the office, I asked about the river and whether intertubes could be rented or borrowed. I was told that unfortunately the river was not deep enough for swimming as the area had been suffering from drought for some weeks. I was quite surprised by this information. A drought in New England? It had been raining regularly throughout our travels. Although I was disappointed, I had been secretly hoping for a dry spell.

The campsites backing up to the river were quite lovely and I was a little envious of them as we were camping on the other side of the property on a slight hill. But our campsite turned out to be rather advantageous, as we had no one camping next to us and enjoyed a nice open green space on the hill to ourselves. The weather though did not stay as dry as I hoped as we did get a few days of showers. We were into August and I was still hoping for one week without rain somewhere during 2018. That would not happen until we landed at a campsite in Massachusetts a few weeks later.

This secluded campground in a country setting turned out to be one of the best of our travels. Besides the great deal of space and lovely vistas there were trails to wander in the woods. It also came with another perk, our first camp pig roast and potluck. The campground owners provided two pigs and pavilion and we campers brought the side dishes. The pigs were roasted on site by the “Happy Pig Roasters,” a BBQ company that trailered in their own grill and supplies. The meat was deliciously cooked by the happy roaster pictured below.

After our meal we were entertained by a great country band who came all the way from the Boston area. The big city of Boston seemed so far away here nestled in the peaceful Green Mountains.

Mark and I had already visited Vermont on another non RV trip some years ago, so we decided to skip some of the touristy places we had visited before. One of the things I most enjoyed during our previous trip was the covered bridges. Vermont has over 100 of them and I believe we saw about 25 of those when we first explored here. Although Vermont does not have the most covered bridges in the U.S., it has the most covered bridges per square mile or the most covered bridge density. The state of Pennsylvania has the most with 213. On this trip I wanted to check out some of the bridges we had missed before. We visited the village of Northfield where there are five covered bridges, three of them on the same road.

Although covered bridges are picturesque, they are actually built to protect the structures supporting the bridges. Without this protection, the wood would rot due to inclement weather of the harsh Vermont winters.

Here in Northfield is the only place in Vermont where you can stand in one covered bridge and view another. I was standing in Northfield Falls Bridge when I took this picture of Lower Cox Bridge just down the road.

We visited the village of Quechee which has a covered bridge as well as the famous Simon Pearce glassmaking facility and restaurant located in a restored brick mill. From the deck outside the restaurant is this beautiful view of the Quechee Covered Bridge, the Ottaquechee River Gorge and waterfall.

I hope you enjoyed some of our exploring in Vermont! Stay tuned for more to come!