Waterbury, VT

Sunday, September 24, 2023

We had a full day today in Vermont’s Waterbury and Stowe areas.

Our day started at Bragg Farm in East Montpelier, VT. We camped overnight in the back pasture of their sugar house, or maple syrup farm. When the farm store opened at 8:30am, Andi, Tory, and I went inside to buy a few more maple products while Aden played outside with the son of another person who camped there overnight.

People from Vermont take their maple syrup seriously! We saw lots of blue ribbon awards hanging around the farm store. Customers could taste the various maple syrups produced here (light-colored to dark) and walk throughout the sugaring room to see where Bragg makes their syrup. The staff of Bragg Farm was very friendly and offered to turn on a video for us showing how they make their maple syrup in their spring. We’re quite familiar with the process since we live in Wisconsin, but it was still interesting to see the technique, and the pride, of producers from another northern state.

Of course we bought more maple syrup products while we visited. Andi and Tory each wanted another maple creemee (maple-flavored soft-serve). We also got some maple-flavored hard candies and a jar of Vermont pure maple syrup. Sure, we literally have a case of maple syrup sitting in our pantry back home in Wisconsin, but we wanted to support this farm and their generosity letting us camp overnight. Afterwards, we closed up the RV and set off on our next adventure in the state.

Since we were in Montpelier, I wanted to cruise by the state capital building. Tory and Aden have been learning state capitals in our homeschool studies, so I thought it’d be good to cement a place with the name. Montpelier has the distinction of being the least populated state capital in all of the United States with just 8,000 residents. On a Saturday morning, we were able to drive our RV right up to the front and take a picture. We thought that was pretty cool!

The Vermont State Capital is a beautiful building, and very peaceful surroundings.

We had to laugh at our chosen attire for the day — Andi in slippers and socks, Aden wearing high-top tennis shoes with shorts, and me with long socks and short rain boots. You can tell we’ve been living in our camper for the past month. Fashion has gone out the window.

Next, we cruised over to Little River State Park in Waterbury, Vermont to secure a camping spot for the night. There isn’t a ton of camping options around this area, so Andi wanted to be sure we had a spot to come back to later tonight. Camping in the eastern USA isn’t like the West where there’s tons of free government land available to park your RV. Generally, there are more people and less available camping, so we have to plan ahead a little bit — especially because it’s the weekend.

We secured the last camping spot available at Little River State Park in Waterbury. Andi filled up with water and then left the RV parked in our camping spot so we could explore more of the area in our Jeep.

From the town of Waterbury, we traveled 30 minutes north along Highway 100 to Stowe, Vermont. There’s a Guide Along audio tour for this 216-mile scenic highway in Vermont, so Andi purchased and downloaded it for our drive. Unfortunately, the commentator wasn’t the same “talkie guy” narrator as the national park tours. This audio tour featured a lady’s voice whom we nicknamed Sally. Sally wasn’t nearly as informative or as fun to listen to.

Stowe is a quaint ski town located in northern Vermont which sits at the base of Mount Mansfield. Although people flock to this area for skiing, the town is popular all year round for shopping and hiking in the Green Mountains.

Sally, the audio tour commentator, suggested we visit Gold Brook Covered Bridge, also known as Emily’s Bridge, on the outskirts of Stowe. The story goes that around the time this covered bridge was built in 1844, a young woman named Emily planned to elope with her love. The couple planned to meet at this very bridge, but when he didn’t show, she hanged herself from the rafters. It is said that Emily still haunts this bridge and those who pass through it.

We visited Emily’s Bridge, but didn’t get any spooky vibes while we were there. All covered bridges are protected structures in the state of Vermont, and there’s a lot of them. They are beautiful to look at and attract the admiration from locals and visitors alike.

Just a few blocks away from the Gold Brook Covered Bridge, downtown Stowe was quite busy on a Saturday afternoon. We couldn’t find a parking spot along the main drag, so we followed signs to a local farmer’s market taking place in the park. Andi and I took bets to see how much produce would cost here. The East Coast is not a cheap place to travel, especially in picturesque towns like this one. We purchased a bag of locally grown salad mix for $6 and a rice-filled heating pad for $28. I really wanted the heating pad … my neck and shoulders have been so tight lately.

After the market, we drove back into town to see if we could find a spot to park and walk around. We stopped by a wine & cheese store to see if they had any local products for sale. The wine much more expensive than we wanted to pay ($25 was the cheapest bottle).

In town, we walked around the downtown shops but didn’t find anything of interest to buy. Still a cute, touristy place to walk around on a gorgeous fall afternoon.

Next, we followed Highway 100 south of Stowe to Smuggler’s Notch State Park. There’s a lot of history in this area of Vermont. In the 1800’s, fugitive slaves used the Notch as an escape route to Canada before and during the Civil War. Then during Prohibition years, liquor was smuggled from Canada over this roadway. Back then, only a footpath or trail for horses existed. Today, it’s a narrow pass through the Green Mountains. We learned about many of these historical facts while listening to the Guide Along audio tour as we drove. Most of the trailheads and parking lots along the highway were full, so we didn’t stop to walk around much.

We drove through some of the popular ski resorts along this stretch of highway. One overlook that Sally, the lady narrating our audio driving tour, told us to check out was a drive to the top of Mount Mansfield at 4,395 feet. A little pricey, she said, but worth it for a bird’seye view of the Green Mountains. On a clear day, supposedly you can see west to Lake Champlain, north to Canada, and east to New Hampshire. Andi pulled the Jeep into the parking lot to see how much it’d cost for our family of four to drive to the top — $65! Yikes. We decided to skip the tour to the top and keep driving along Highway 100.

We had 5:30pm reservations to tour the Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury, VT so we had about two hours to kill until then. Andi pulled the Jeep into an apple farm located between the towns of Stowe and Waterbury called Cold Hollow Cider Mill. We were hoping they had hard cider to sip on for a while before we made our way to Ben & Jerry’s. Unfortunately, this was only a regular apple cider store with all things fall to taste — cider donuts, apple desserts, and more. It was crazy busy on a Saturday afternoon with long lines and lots of little kids, so we didn’t stay long.

I suggested we head to Ben & Jerry’s Factory in hopes of getting into an earlier tour. When we arrived around 4:30pm, we realized there was no way that was happening. The parking lot was packed with cars, buses, and RVs. Touring the Ben & Jerry’s Factory is rated the number one activity in all of Vermont. Advanced reservations are required and clearly, that’s for good reason.

The four of us walked around the Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard to see all the flavors of ice cream that have been discontinued over the years. This is free to do, and located near the parking area on site. We got a kick out of reading the names and descriptions of the flavors. Some of the ice cream flavors were available for years, and others were only available for a short time. Tory noticed that a lot of the flavors were retired around 2020 when, as we learned later, Unilever purchased the Ben & Jerry’s brand.

Next, we walked over to a playground area outside the factory entrance. There were lots of families hanging around here eating ice cream. Tory and Aden played on the playground equipment while Andi and I sat in chairs nearby and people watched. We noticed people from all over the world visiting — several different languages being spoken around us.

Inside, we waited patiently for our 5:30pm tour. I’m glad we came a little early so we could peruse the gift shop. I bought an ornament for our Christmas tree and a sticker to put into our RV travel book. Right on the dot, the cow bell rang and our tour began. For the next 30 minutes, we were guided through the Ben & Jerry’s factory. We watched a short 6-minute video about how the company was founded and its principles and then were lead to a room overlooking the production floor. There are three Ben & Jerry’s factories, two in the USA and one in The Netherlands. This one operates 24/7 and only produces the top 5 ice cream flavors. The rest of the flavors are made in their second USA facility. The Netherlands facility produces all the ice cream pints sold in Europe and the Mediterranean.

The last stop on the tour was a sample room where we were each given a small cup of ice cream to eat. Today’s ice cream flavor was “dirt cake.”

The line outside to buy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was long, a 20-minute wait, so we decided to drive to the grocery store and buy some pints to take back to the RV. This must be a popular thing to do because the nearby grocery store had a huge selection of Ben & Jerry’s pints — many more flavors than we’d seen before.

The four of us drove back to our campsite at Little River State Park and made dinner. We had a full and wonderful day exploring the great state of Vermont.