Green Mountain Peaks

There is a farm stand on Route 100 that I have been stopping at since before I can remember, the kind with a coffee can for change and a chalkboard that just says “corn, tomatoes, whatever Gram picked today.” Every July, the line of cars pulls off onto the gravel shoulder like clockwork. That little stand, more than any restaurant menu, is what farm to table actually means around here. It is not…

Last October I stood in my driveway watching the propane truck top off the tank, doing that quiet math every Vermonter does around the same time every year. Winter is coming, the tank needs to be full, and the bill is going to sting a little. A friend from outside Boston texted me that same week asking about moving to Vermont, wanting to know if it would actually save her any money compared to…

It was somewhere between the second and third bridge of the day when I stopped thinking about the route entirely. The map was still open on the passenger seat. I just was not looking at it anymore. The road had gone from pavement to packed dirt about a mile back, the tree canopy had closed in overhead, and somewhere ahead there was a covered bridge that had been standing in the same spot since…

There’s a particular moment that happens somewhere around the third mile of a solo hike in Vermont. The parking lot noise fades. The last dog walker turns back. And you realize it’s just you, the ridge, and however many miles of birch and spruce you decided to take on that morning. It’s quiet in a way that feels earned. I’ve had that moment on the Long Trail above Stowe, on a frozen logging road…

There’s a moment every Vermont summer when the dirt road dust settles, a brass band starts up somewhere in a field, and you realize you’d happily drive an hour and a half for this. For me it was a Sunday in Glover, sitting on a grassy hillside watching papier-mâché beasts the size of pickup trucks lurch across a field while a sourdough rye loaf got passed down the row. I’d come for the spectacle.…

There is a particular kind of afternoon that happens in Vermont in early October, the kind where the light goes golden and flat around 4 PM, the maples are doing something almost embarrassing with color, and the school bus rolls down a dirt road past a weathered red barn with nobody in a hurry about any of it. Kids pile off and disappear into the woods behind their houses with sticks and boots…

There is something that happens to people the first time they drive through Vermont in October. The hills go impossibly red and orange, the air has that cold-clean smell that wakes you right up, and somewhere along a two-lane road lined with sugar maples, the thought creeps in: what if I just stayed? For a lot of people, that thought eventually turns into a lease, then a purchase, then a whole…

There’s a moment every June that feels like a collective exhale across Vermont. The last of the mud season mess has dried up, the hillsides have gone full green, and suddenly, out of nowhere, the hand-painted signs start appearing along the roadsides. “Strawberries. Lettuce. Eggs.” Sometimes just an arrow pointing down a gravel road. That’s how you know summer has officially arrived here. Farm…

There is a reason people who move to the Northeast Kingdom rarely leave. It is not that they cannot. It is that after a while, they stop wanting to. The NEK, as locals call it, covers Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia counties in the far northeastern corner of Vermont. It is the largest, least developed, and most sparsely populated region in the state. No major highways cut through it. No big box…

Vermont has a way of sneaking up on you. You come for a long weekend, maybe just to catch the fall foliage or ski a few runs, and then you find yourself standing at the edge of a covered bridge or eating the best bowl of cheddar soup you have ever tasted and thinking: I need more time here. There is always more time needed in Vermont. Whether you are visiting for the first time, spending a…

There are towns in Vermont that feel like they were built for a postcard. Stowe is one of them. But what makes it different from the other picture-perfect New England villages is that it actually holds up when you stay longer than a weekend. The mountain is real. The community is real. The life you can build here is real. I have spent a lot of time in Stowe, both as a visitor drawn back again…

Summer in Vermont is made for family adventures. From a swim at Warren Falls to a hike up to Sterling Pond, this post covers the best day trips across the state, including farms, rainy day options, and where to find the best maple creemees. Worth a bookmark if you have kids in tow this summer. Top Family Adventures in Vermont

June is the month Vermont finally exhales. The mud season mud is gone, the black flies are winding down, and the whole state shifts into something that feels genuinely celebratory. If you have been waiting for the right moment to visit, or if you live here and want to actually make the most of the season, June gives you more reasons to get outside and show up somewhere than almost any other…

There is something about a piece of Vermont land that gets into your head and stays there. Maybe it is the way a hillside meadow looks in early October, all golden and quiet. Maybe it is the idea of waking up to nothing but birdsong and the sound of a brook running somewhere below the tree line. Whatever draws you in, buying land or a rural property in Vermont is one of the most rewarding things…

There is something about paddling in Vermont in the spring that feels almost stolen. The water is still cold enough to keep most people home, the trees are just starting to wake up, and the rivers are full and fast from snowmelt. If you time it right, you can spend an entire morning on the water without seeing another soul. I have been paddling Vermont’s rivers and lakes for years now, and…

There is a moment every spring in Vermont when you know the season has actually turned. It is not the calendar date, and it is not the first warm afternoon. It is the evening you finally drag the chairs back out to the fire pit, stack some wood, and light it without feeling like you are rushing the season. That moment usually comes somewhere in May, after mud season has done its worst and the…