Great fall road trip knocking around in search of the Kancamangus Highway
Thinking about a fall trip to see the foliage? There is no better place to experience the fall than with a weekend excursion to parts of New England. At least that is what they tell you. And we’ve done it. And they (whoever THEY are) are right.
New England has become synonymous with the beauty of the fall. Of course, timing is everything because you never know when Mother Nature is going to explode with all of the colors of its palette. Go too early…and you see too much green. Go too late…and…well…you see way too much brown. It’s a crap shoot really.
Melissa planned a great weekend road trip along the back roads of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire…in hopes of finding some great small towns, some enjoyable walks (and maybe even some hikes), and, of course, some pretty good food and drink. And oh yeah…hopefully some magnificent views and spectacular colors…that would be the main goal.
And the main destination would be the popular Kancamangus Highway in the White Mountain Forest of New Hampshiire. Try to say it…try to spell it…don’t worry about that…just enjoy the ride and the views.
But first…there is so much to see along the way.
Our road trip began in New Jersey before passing through New York and into Connecticut. Our first stop was in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts
Great Barrington had a quaint and nostalgic downtown area populated with old buildings on narrow streets that still featured old neon signs from yesteryear. We walked along the streets, did some window shopping, and got some snacks.
We found an old roadside motel and stayed the first night in the Monument Mountain Motel. Very much reminiscent of the Rosebud Motel of Schitt’s Creek fame.
The next day we ventured out on a short hike on the Hickey Trail at the nearby Monument Mountain. And then a stop at Natural Bridge State Park in North Adams, Massachusetts.
We continued on to the small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home of the famous Red Lion Inn, a hotel that dates back to the 18th Century.
After touring the hotel we walked around the Stockbridge General Store, picked up some locally made items, and then went to The Lost Lamb for some nourishment…sweets, actually.
We drove around town, scoping out some of the old buildings that date back to before the turn of the century…not this one but the one before.
Vermont
Our drive continued on to Vermont where we would pass some nice mountainside views as well as some great colors along some local waterways…passing through Wilmington, Vermont. We were thinking of stopping to meander there as well, however, everything seemed to be shutting down and it was still early.
We made it to the ever so popular Vermont Country Store, the location in Weston, Vermont founded back in 1946. The place is like a museum of old stuff and old toys and old candies that you can’t seem to find anymore. Reeds root beer candy…I loaded up on that. And the flannel…if you love flannel…you can’t beat what’s at the Vermont Country Store.
Our stay that night was at a Hampton Inn in Rutland, Vermont.
Rutland is a town that seems to be clinging to its history but is also adhering to growth as evidenced by the big “box stores” within the town. We found a pretty nice restaurant for dinner, but not any kind of place that we would say we had to go back and do again. Not even worth mentioning.
The next morning we continued on our journey and came upon a great place for breakfast – Sugar and Spice – in nearby Mendon, Vermont. The place churns out maple syrup. It has maple walnut waffles with maple ice cream! This place is a “must stop” for a bite to eat…even if breakfast could very well be dessert!
The drive through Vermont was just amazing…amazing for the fall colors…amazing for the many covered bridges that we saw. And Vermont has a LOT of them. If you are not enticed by the colors of fall, the beauty of the covered bridges will certainly capture your eye.
A huge part of our trip was along Route 100…which travails through many of the State’s small towns and has come to be known as “Vermont’s Main Street.”
Woodstock, Vermont was the next stop and the town was old, quaint, meticulously maintained, and crowded. The streets were packed with tourists…bus tours dropping off hundreds of people to waltz through the town. And the shops…the shops were mobbed with people.
Melissa and I looked at each other. We love stopping into the small local places. We love going to the towns that are off the beaten path. But we realized that these towns that we passed through along the way, are not so off the beaten path. They are heavily traveled by tourists.
All those little quaint towns that you think will be so awe-inspiring might be…at the beginning. But then they all seem the same. All of those eclectic shops with foo foo inventory at very foo foo prices. What do you NEED that stuff for? Where are you putting it? But there they are…people carrying bags filled with…God knows what. $60 throw pillows? Time to move on.
Continuing on we came upon Quechee Gorge along US 4 in Quechee, Vermont. The gorge is 165 feet deep and is the deepest gorge in the State of Vermont. It IS a great picture spot, but that’s pretty much all it is. It’s simply a tourist picture spot. So a great spot as long as it’s on the way to wherever you are headed.
We were headed to New Hampshire. Carry on…
New Hampshire
We were winging it for the night and didn’t have a real plan. Don’t do that. We’ve done that too many times and one of us tends to panic. After contacting multiple hotels, we ended up finding an older roadside motel, and we ended up getting what would be more like an efficiency apartment. It was huge accommodations…and clean. It had a hot tub…and that’s always cool…but submerging into a tepid pool of your own filth doesn’t always soothe a person with OCD. Melissa doesn’t like it either and she doesn’t have OCD…she just doesn’t like her own filth.
The next day we got to see what we came for…Route 112…Kancamangus Highway.
Kancamangus Highway is a 34.5 miles stretch of highway that cuts through the White Mountain National Forest. It has so many beautiful trails, so many scenic viewpoints, and many water features along the way. It is very difficult to get a bad picture. Point and shoot…you can’t miss. In fact, I will just let the pics tell the story.
We’ve been to a lot of National Parks across the country. It’s a wonder how the 34.5 miles of scenic highway, and the acres of natural beauty surrounding it, haven’t been designated as a National Park by the National Park Service.
So if you are looking for that colorful and picturesque weekend road trip, load up the car and drive up through New England for a drive along the Kancamangus Highway.