Fall Road Trip in the Green Mountains

Yep, here I am again with a fall post. This will be the last one though; I promise! It’s just been so incredibly beautiful over here in Vermont and I have been trying to make the most of the season by going on long hikes in the mountains and on many a Vermont road trip in Fall. My mission to photograph all covered bridges in Vermont can conveniently be combined with some foliage photography.

About ten days ago I headed west – I currently live in the east of the state near the border with New Hampshire – towards the magnificent Green Mountains . This spine of that mountain range runs from south-north direction through the state. The Green Mountains National Forest encompasses a large part of it. Technically, just like New Hampshire’s White Mountains, these mountains are part of the much larger Appalachian Mountains Range, which runs from Georgia in the south all the way to Maine. This ancient mountain range has been around for millions and millions of years, and time and weather have eroded away the spiky mountain peaks. Now, the mountains kind of look like very large hills. There are not rugged and wild like, say, the much younger Rocky Mountains or Alps in Europe.

The fact that the Green Mountains have been sculpted and polished by erosion makes them ideal for hiking. You can pretty much hike up to the summit of every single decently-sized mountain. In the Rockies, for example, reaching the highest peaks requires actual rock climbing with ropes, rungs and the lot.

This is also the reason that the Appalachian Trail, a several-thousand-mile hiking trail, exists. It essentially runs along the spine of the Appalachians from Georgia to Maine. It also runs through the southern part of the Green Mountains. Another long-distance trail, and incidentally the longest one in the US, is the aptly named Long Trail. This runs from the south of Vermont to the Canadian border in the north, summitting all major peaks in the Green Mountains. It takes about a month to complete this hike and it’s really high up on my list of things to do.

Green Mountains Vermont Road Trip in Fall

This time, however, I drove. I don’t like using a GPS, because in my opinion it totally ruins people’s ability to navigate and their sense of where they are. Maps are still the way to go if you want to explore a region properly.

I was on a mission to take a photo of ten covered bridges in and around the Green Mountains  and I succeeded. On a Vermont road trip in fall, it took me a full day of driving along winding mountain roads and through wide valleys. The foliage was spectacular in Fall and during that Vermont road trip I saw a large part of the state of Vermont that I hadn’t visited before.

Fall is practically over now – the colors are all but gone – but there will be many more Vermont road trips in the near future. Now, I’m really looking forward to winter and its snowy and icy landscapes.

Next year I may not still be here, but if I am, I will definitely be joining the hordes of leaf-peepers again who rent cars or get in their huge motorhomes on another Vermont road trip to see New England in the fall.