We woke up about 6:30 am to a nice day. Had breakfast, cleaned up and took it easy, then headed out from camp about 8:30 am. We took route 107 through Woodstock, VT to Quechee Gorge where we stopped at the visitor centre to gather some information on sights to see. We then took the trail from the visitor centre down to the gorge. It is a fairly steep hill down, but easily manageable as the distance is about 0.5 mi down. Once down we wandered out on the rocks to get a better view of the gorge and let Tessa play in the water.
At the bottom we headed up the trail past the entrance to the visitor centre to the dam to see the waterfall there and then on to the pond.
After the hike it was time to explore the area. We drove through Quechee Village and stopped at the Simon Pearce Glass Blowing studio to see the artists at work. They had some beautiful glass blown items as well as pottery at the studio for sale. Unfortunately we did not have room in the vehicle on this trip to be able to pick up a piece. There is a nice little waterfall off the rear of the studio as well.
After our short stop we continued on our way to Sugarbush Farm (http://www.sugarbushfarm.com/)which I had seen mentioned in a number of different posts on the internet as a place to see. At the information centre they also recommended this so we figured me better check it out. The drive is very nice and scenic out to the farm. You will pass by some high end resorts and gorgeous old mansions. The staff there are very nice and friendly and there is an old lab that wanders the property named Max. They were very open to letting us tie our dog up in the shade near the cars and Tessa and Max laid near each other just checking each other out while we went to try some cheese and maple syrup. After trying a number of cheeses we decided on the 8 yr old cheddar and the sage cheddar. our daughter liked all of the cheeses she was offered to try. We enjoyed the maple syrup tasting as well and picked up a couple different grades to take home with us. After tasting and shopping we went out to the petting zoo area which is near the entrance. They had a calf tied up and various small animals in their pens which you could see. Our daughter wanted to pet all of the animals.
We decided to continue on the backroads back into Woodstock where we wandered the main street, checking out some of the shops and we stopped for lunch at one of the local cafe’s.
Once we were shopped out we headed back to camp so our daughter could take a nap before we decided to hit up the beach. It is a small sandy beach with a nice park area around it. The water was the perfect temperature with a nice sandy bottom. There were many families there with their kids. Our daughter was having so much fun swimming in her lifejacket and watching some of the older kids play in the water.
That evening we cooked dinner at the camp and once our daughter went to bed we played some more sequence.
It rained overnight, but thanks to the lean-to our tent was nice and dry.
To see what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
We were woken early on our 2nd day of our trip by grouse in the forest nearby. We enjoyed our first camp breakfast before packing up to get back out on the road.
We decided to take the High Peaks scenic byway this day and enjoyed the scenic drive and saw tons of hiking trails being well used. (We will definitely have to return to tackle some of these trails at a future date).
We drove the main strip of Lake George, and noted it was a very busy spot. The main strip was quite tacky from what we saw and the traffic was insane. We did however decide to drive up Prospect Mountain. One thing to note is that dogs are not allowed on the trail to the summit so I would recommend you don’t take your pet with you. They did not mention this at the gate, but signs were posted everywhere at the parking lot that dogs were not permitted. Since this was the case, Dave stayed back at the car with our dog Tessa while I made the trek up to the top with our daughter.
The trail to the summit is a paved path but quite steep which finishes in stairs. This path would be too steep for a stroller. The alternative is to walk the roadway or you can take a shuttle from the summit parking lot. The views from up top were very nice and there is a nice little picnic area as well.
After our stop here we then got back on the road. We ran into some decent sized hail, winds and heavy rains at the New York-Vermont border as we passed through the Washington Correctional Facilities which forced us to pull over. When we thought the hail had passed and the rain appeared to be getting lighter we headed back out on the road to be hit with hail again, not 5 minutes down the road. We pulled over again and waited it out.
Playing around while riding out the storm
Killington, VT has some spectacular views and much larger hills/mountains.
As we continued to drive along we noted a number of washed out areas including collapsed/washed out homes and bridges. We later found out that this was damaged done by Hurricane Irene which hit the area in August 2011.
We checked into our campsite at Silver Lake State Park mid-afternoon. We greeted at the gate by one of the park wardens. He was very friendly, welcoming and helpful. This was the best campground we have ever camped at. We decided to book a camp site with a lean to. We were amazed at how clean the campground was including the washrooms. This is a fairly small campground with a number of lean to sites located on Silver Lake which is a small lake with a sandy beach within the park. The lean-tos are very well maintained and were very clean as well. Even if you were camping on a site without the lean to’s this would be a nice spot to camp as some of the sites are grassy and those that are not have the fine gravel on them so no large rocks or stones to stick in your back at night.
It was definitely cooler by the time we got to the campground so we changed into pants and long sleeve shirts before doing anything else.
Once the site was set up we headed into Bethel to the general store to get some groceries. They have an on site butcher for fresh meat as well. We took the winding road into town which took about 10 minutes and it was a nice drive as well.
Our daughter had a blast playing in the bin lids in the dining tent while we cooked dinner.
After dinner our daughter was put down to sleep in the tent which we had set up in the lean-to. She played for about 30 minutes or so in the tent before zonking out. She was having a blast in the tent scooting around, checking out the pockets, our sleeping bags, and pushing her face into the sides of the tent seeing how it moved. It was hard for us not to laugh when we would see the imprint of her face pushing out the tent. Once she was out Dave and I decided to play some Sequence. The campground was pretty quiet by 8:30pm.
To see what else we saw on this trip check out the below links:
