New England Road Trip: Part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of my recap of our New England Road Trip. Part One covered our time in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and you can read that here. 

That next day we headed North towards Vermont. Before reaching the Western side of Massachusetts, I made Eric take a slight detour to the Connecticut town of Sharon- how could I not!

After that we continued North to drive through the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. This region was so beautiful. It was rolling hill after rolling hill dotted with the cutest little farms along the way. 

We decided to pull over at a winery and were treated with some delicious wine and an apple cider donut. 

That stop also lead us to our next stop- driving to the top of Mount Greylock, which is the highest point in Massachusetts. They say on a clear day you can see 5 different states from its summit. We weren't blessed with such a day, but we still had some great views of the closer scenery. 

As we continued our drive, the rolling hills were becoming more mountainous, and before we knew it we were in the Green Mountains of Vermont! Which in turn meant that we had started our covered bridge tour.

I couldn't pass up a chance to go across the Cornish-Windsor bridge that connects Vermont to New Hampshire. It is touted as the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States, and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. 

After our detour over there, we headed to our first stop in Vermont, Woodstock. We hit up a few more covered bridges near the town, and took in the views of Quechee Gorge from the top. It was raining when we were there, so we didn't hike down to the bottom. 

The next morning we hit up SugarBush Farm before leaving Woodstock. This is primarily a maple syrup farm, but they do make cheese as well. We came home with a cheese pack and maple marinade from here! (We would have bought syrup from here too, but we'd already bought some at a random roadside stand. And on a sad note, the syrup bottle never made it home with us. I'm not sure if it rolled out under one of the seats of the truck, or if we accidentally left it at our last house when we were packing, but it was a sad day when we realized we didn't have it at home with us once we were back.)

In one of the buildings outside they had a map where you could put in a pin from where you are from. They take all the pins out every year and start with an empty map each year. I got to put in the pin for Newton for the year! And we could tell from the map that someone from Newton has been here before, which was really neat. 

I think the coolest thing about this farm is that you can go on their Maple Walk, which takes you through a Maple grove near their main buildings where they have their sap collecting lines out so you can see how they do it. It's kind of amazing how much sap is required to make syrup, and all the steps that go into making it. 

As we continued our way North through the Green Mountains, we made a stop at Warren Falls. It was a short walk from the parking lot to the falls, and while they were small falls, they sure were beautiful. The water was so incredibly clear at the bottom of the falls. 

Eric and I both love ice cream, so we couldn't pass up a stop at the Ben and Jerry's Factory and Flavor Graveyard. 

We both thoroughly enjoyed walking through the graveyard. A few of our favorite tombstones are included below.

And while we didn't do the factory tour, we did partake in some yummy ice cream- Phish Food for me and Half-Baked for Eric. 

After that it was on to another waterfall hike, this time to see Moss Glenn Falls. This waterfall was really impressive, and we were able to climb up some rocks past the trail to get different vantage points of the falls. 

We stayed the night that evening at an adorable Bed and Breakfast in Stowe before heading East the next morning towards New Hampshire. I had originally planned on us driving up the Mount Washington Auto Road. It was SO foggy that day, so I was fully prepared to not see much once we got to the top. But when we got to the toll station at the bottom, they told us that the top was closed due to getting snow a few days before. They said we could drive halfway, but visibility was only like 40 feet or so, so we decided it wouldn't be worth it for that. 

Instead we decided to start chasing waterfalls! The first waterfall that we went to was just a short drive past the auto road, Crystal Cascade. I knew this was a short hike (.7 out and back) to get to the falls, so when we got to something waterfall looking, we decided that that was the falls and turned around. But as I was looking up what the waterfalls were called again to write this blog, I realized that we actually stopped a little too short and missed the beautiful waterfall at the end. I'm frustrated with myself for not realizing this, but such is life. So, enjoy a picture of a mini waterfall before the Crystal Cascade. Google what the actual waterfall looks like and be sad with me that we didn't hike quite long enough. 

Up next was another really short hike to see Glen Ellis Falls (and this one we actually did see ha!). This waterfall was powerful. The sign next to it said that every few seconds a minimum of 600 gallons of water have passed through the falls. It was a good one to see!

The Silver Cascades were roadside, and were quite peaceful to listen to.

Our last waterfall hike was the longest and the most rewarding! We hiked the Falling Waters Trail and were able to see a total of three different waterfalls. I'm glad the water wasn't up on this trail, we ended up crossing the river a total of 4 times-2 on the way there and 2 on the way back. Our feet only got a tiny bit wet on the return trip. Here I am in the middle of one of the crossings.

Up first was Stairs Falls.

Then right after that one was Swiftwater Falls.

And we finally made it to the last waterfall of the hike and the true gem of the trip- Cloudland Falls. It was absolutely beautiful and I was able to practice my long exposure photography to really capture the beauty of this fall. 

We spent a little time here before turning around and heading back to the starting point. If we had a few more hours we could have hiked to the top of Little Haystack Mountain, but that wasn't in the cards for that day. 

Following our hike, we took a drive down the Kancamagus Highway. It was such a beautiful drive, and I can see where it would be extremely popular to do in the fall. But the peace and serenity we felt being about the only ones up there was something I wouldn't trade for the hustle and bustle that come with the changing color of the leaves. 

The sun finally came out while we were driving the highway, but you can tell it was still rainy too. We got blessed by seeing part of a rainbow during the drive!

Our night ended at an AirBnB with the most incredible view (which I somehow didn't get a picture of). If you need a place to stay near Conway, New Hampshire, I can give you a great one!

And that's where our Vermont and New Hampshire part of our road trip ends. Up next will be Maine and a revisit to Massachusetts, so stay tuned for one more post!