Fall colors in Vermont

Witnessing fall foliage while sipping on my pumpkin spice latte has been on my bucket list since forever, so without a second thought, I booked my tickets to Boston last Autumn season. Stowe, Vermont is well-known for the scenic roads during fall, and that is one of the finest ways to experience fall foliage in the states.

When and where

Vermont is just what I’d imagined – incredibly charming and surrounded by the most beautiful fall colors I’ve ever seen. October first week is when Vermont’s Green Mountains start getting ready for their fall makeover, and there’s no better way to appreciate the season than with a fall foliage road trip with your friends. The peak fall season doesn’t happen at the exact same time every year but October is the month you should target for.

There are two ways to approach planning your fall trip – the first is to meticulously plan everything and try to cover all regions in New England area (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine) in the attempt to not waste a moment, and the second (the option we went with) is to pick one region and not plan at all. Doesn’t sound like me right? On this trip, I wanted to spend quality time with my friends while witnessing this fall beauty.

Here’s our entire itinerary map: Google Maps

What to pack

There are some essential items you should pack for your Vermont fall road trip to make it as enjoyable as possible! Snacks (we found it challenging to find good food on the road), Raincoat, Jacket, Camera, Offline and physical Map. I packed yellow and orange colored dresses to blend in the fall environment.

Day 1

Bhakti and I drove from Boston to Stowe, where we had booked our stay for a night. As we moved closer to Stowe, fall colors expanded quickly and with increased vibrancy.

Lake Morey is what I had been envisioning our whole trip when I was doing my initial research on the internet looking for fall pictures in Vermont. So on Interstate 91, while we were driving to Stowe, we caught a glimpse of a narrow lake with foliage-covered mountains by the edge. It was just a first week of October, so mountains were still catching up on the beautiful fall color. It was so peaceful sitting by the lake with my best friend, catching up after so many months, talking about how we have grown from crazy teenagers to independent adults chasing our dreams, and well much more frenzied talk, none of which I remember now.

We found a lonely tree surrounded with quite a large pile of orange leaves, and we couldn’t control ourselves from running through it, because Fall.

We had downloaded offline maps (very important! since there is no internet on this entire road trip) but somehow we lost our way and ended up driving to a town nearby. We stopped for a quick coffee and of course for buying a physical map which saved our day and helped us reach our stay for the night!

Stay

We were completely exhausted from a long day of traveling, but looking at the house we chose to stay for the night, we were literally mindblown. Finding good accommodation gets competitive during this season due to obvious reasons, so I would definitely recommend booking it in much advance.

We had packed homemade grilled sandwiches for dinner and some wine to complete this perfect dinner in the middle of nowhere. We put on PJs and hopped into bed, watching the beautiful fairy lights all around.

Here’s a link to this beautiful accommodation: Hipcamp

Day 2

We woke up the following morning to a dreamlike atmosphere. A cloud of thick mist around the house, the colorful foliage that looked like a painting and the abundant amounts of orange color in everything around…we just couldn’t get enough! We arrived at the house in the dark the night before, so it was all new to our morning eyes. 

Our host was a super friendly lady, she invited us for breakfast and shared lots of amusing stories from her travel experiences across the world. She even showed us around the area and offered to click a picture for both of us. Meeting new people on my travels and sharing such little moments with them is what I cherish the most.

Before we started exploring the area around, we picked up our friends Anindita and Manuel from the bus stop. Annie and I spent a summer together when I was doing my internship in Boston and ended up being best friends for life. We made a pit stop to explore the historic town nearby and grab some coffee.

We took a mountain road from downtown Stowe to get some stunning views of fall foliage. A picturesque view of the famous community church surrounded by fall-foliage covered mountains was definitely a highlight of that scenic route.

There isn’t a better way to witness mountains on fall-fire than Stowe’s gondola experience. We took a gondola ride to the peak of Vermont’s highest mountain which literally felt like a path to heaven. Looking at the magnificent assortment of colors made me realize that change is indeed good.

You can either book this ride online in advance or buy tickets on the spot. Gondola Sky Ride

After a 20-min spectacular gondola ride, we reached on the top where we had lunch at the Cliff House Restaurant. When we started our ride, fog hovered above the ground and as we reached to the top, it was still lingering, but with increased volume, creating an eery but gorgeous sight over all the fall colored mountains. 

On our way back to Boston, we found this beautiful alpaca farm. I was super excited in the beginning but looking at the entire herd of alpacas running towards us, I almost had a panic attack. Annie and Manny (wow that rhymes!) have a serious soft spot for alpacas so they helped me in getting comfortable with them. On the other hand, Bhakti couldn’t keep calm and kept shooing them away with my camera lens! Not even joking. After spending some time with these cute animals and taking a few snaps with them we jumped back in the car.

We all ended up playing in the foliage and getting ourselves a perfect fall picture. Because, memories! (Thanks to Manuel for this picture!) We topped off the evening with some donuts and must-try-in-Vermont cider before calling it a day.