Hey Guys!
This post continues our time in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Our travel dates were Oct 5 – 12, 2024.
Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here & Day 5 here & Click here to see links to all of my blog posts
This morning we decided to have breakfast at a very popular restaurant in Stowe called, the Butler’s Pantry.
The restaurant was listed as one of the “10 Best Places to Grab Breakfast Before Skiing in New England” by New England Ski Journaling and voted the “Best Pancakes” in Vermont in 2020 by Insider.com.
We arrived to the restaurant around 7:45 am only to find a long line of people waiting to get in.
Tip: The restaurant doesn’t take reservations for breakfast but they do use the Yelp waitlist that allows you to get in line remotely. You can however, call and make a reservation for dinner.
The restaurant is located in a house that was built in 1830 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 
The building was originally the home of Orion W. Butler, one of Stowe’s first and most prominent lawyers.
The beautiful Stowe Community church sits directly across from the restaurant.
Once the restaurant opened their doors at 8 am, the line started moving pretty quickly.
The Butler’s pantry also offers lodging.
After being seated, we took a few minutes to look over the menu.
We both decided on those famous pancakes with that delicious Vermont maple syrup.
The food was good but definitely not the best pancakes I had ever eaten.
Read reviews here
After breakfast, we decided to walk to Shaw’s General Store to find a t-shirt and coffee cup.
On the way, we passed the Avocado Pit. A Mexican restaurant that is housed in a beautiful, old house.
We also passed these beautiful houses!
The Stowe Village Historic District encompasses most of the village center of Stowe and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Click here for a self guided walking tour of 11 historic sites in Stowe
Shaw’s General Store is a 2 minute walk from Butler’s Pantry.
The store has been family owned and operated since 1895!
It still has the original wood floors and countertop from 1895!
The store offered a variety of things from Vermont made goods, candy, toys, souvenirs and much more!
Read reviews here
After not finding what we were looking for, we headed to another store called, Stowe Mercantile.
This store was very similar to Shaw’s General store.
They had tons of candy!
As we were walking through the store, we spotted this old gondola and a set of skis.
We ended up finding our t-shirts, a coffee cup and some Vermont made chocolate bars!
Read reviews for this store here
After purchasing our souvenirs, we headed back to our hotel and checked out as we would be staying our next two nights in Woodstock.
Click here for best hotels in Stowe
Once we were checked out of our hotel, we headed to our first stop of the day.
Our drive took us through the small town of Morrisville.
This was another cute, colorful town with lots of historic buildings.
We passed this old church.
I thought Tennessee had a lot of churches…this place is right up there with TN…however, the difference is, we use our churches for church services. A lot of the churches we saw in Vermont were either not being used for services or they had been converted to something else.
Actually, Vermont consistently ranks among the least religious state in the country.
We decided to park and get out and walk around for a few minutes after we spotted this beautiful, old house.
We discovered that it used to be the governor’s mansion.
Governor George W. Hendee, the only governor of Vermont from Morrisville, had this house built in 1878. Mr. Hendee went on to represent Vermont in US House of Representatives from 1873-1879.
We continued our walk through town where we spotted another church called, United Community Church. 
This church was built in 1839 and was remodeled in 1857 and again in 1875. A pipe organ was added in 1885 and the church was enlarged and renovated in 1897 in the Gothic Revival style.
After the church, we spotted this gorgeous, old house that was for sale.
After this house, we headed back to our car to continue our drive.
We spotted the Fisher Covered Railroad bridge along the way….it was located in Wolcott.
The bridge was built in 1908 and was the last covered bridge in Vermont to carry railroad traffic, and is a rare surviving example in the state of a double Town lattice truss. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
We didn’t stop to take pictures, so I just snapped a few while we passed the bridge.
Continuing our drive to our next stop, the Nichols Ledge hike. 
The hike is located in Woodbury which is a 45 minute drive from Stowe.
The drive there was on a very narrow, gravel road!
But the drive was so beautiful!
Thankfully, we never met another vehicle on this road!
After finally arriving to the small parking lot at the trailhead, we got out and started the short hike to the ledge.
There was only one other car in the parking lot when we arrived at 10:45 am.
This hike is located on private property but the owner allows people to hike here. However, during March 15 – Aug 1, this trail is closed to hikers due to the peregrine falcons that nest here.
The hike to the ledge is only 0.6 miles and you will gain about 250 ft of elevation.
You will be walking through the woods the entire time and the last section of the trail is a bit steep.
It took us about 10-15 mins to reach the top and the views were incredible!
Nichols Ledge sits at an elevation of 1,707 feet and presents you with exceptional views of Nichols Lake, East Long Pond, Woodbury Mountain, and the Worcester Range of the Green Mountains.
The leaves were popping with colors of orange, yellow, reds and greens!
We couldn’t believe that there was only one other couple here when we arrived and they actually left shortly after we arrived!
It was cloudy and drizzling rain so it was hard to capture just how vivid the colors were.
Nichols Ledge reminded me of the Artist Bluff trail that we had hiked earlier in the week while we were in New Hampshire.
After taking way too many pictures, we headed back to our car.
The trail was really muddy in some areas.
After arriving back to our car, we continued our drive to our next stop.
Instead of going back the way we had come, we continued down the one lane road.
It was like driving through a painting!
About 15 minutes after leaving the trail, we passed one of the lakes we had seen from Nichols Ledge. Our location now showed that we were in Cabot.
Tip: Cabot is home to the Cabot Creamery Visitor Center
Our drive took us through Marshfield but we were still on the backroads driving gravel roads.
The trees along this drive were so beautiful!
I couldn’t stop taking pictures ….as usual! 😉
We were now in East Calais where we spotted an overlook that gave us awesome views of a nearby church!
As we continued our drive, we came up on the church that we had just seen from a distance.
We then passed this pond. Vermont has tons of lakes and ponds!
About 45 mins after leaving the Nichols Ledge trail, we arrived to our next stop, Bragg Farm Sugarhouse. 
We were ready for our daily creemee!
Tip: Click here for a guide to visiting Vermont’s maple farms
After getting parked, we headed inside.
They offered all kinds of Vermont made goodies!
And of course, their own maple syrup!
The Bragg Family has been producing Pure Vermont Maple Syrup at the Bragg Farm Sugarhouse for 8 generations!
They make their maple syrup the traditional way, using buckets and a wood-fired evaporator.
After walking around the store for a few minutes, we headed to the front to order a delicious maple creemee!
We then headed back outside to enjoy our creemees on the front porch.
Maple creemees are a combination of the state’s two most famed products: high-quality milk and high-quality maple syrup and they are pure perfection!
Read reviews here
After finishing up our delicious creemees, we continued our drive through the beautiful countryside of Vermont.
We drove back through Marshfield but this time, we were driving through the town instead of the backroads.
We passed the Marshfield Village Store. The historic town market dates back to 1852.
A few minutes later we found ourselves back in Cabot where we passed the Cabot Creamery facility.
The original creamery was built in 1893 by 94 farmers who invested in proportion to the number of cattle they owned. The creamery started out making butter, but began making cheese in 1930.
The creamery receives milk from 800 family farms across New England and produces 130 million pounds of cheese per year.
Tip: Click here to watch a 5 min YouTube video on Cabot’s creamery and their tours
Driving through Cabot
We passed this incredible house!!
We saw so many gorgeous, historic homes in Vermont….I’m not sure if we even saw any newer homes here!
About 30 mins after leaving Braggs Maple Farm, we arrived to our next stop, Burt’s Apple Orchard. 
There are tons of orchards in Vermont!
During their open season, Burt’s orchard offers pick your own apples, cider donuts, pumpkins, maple syrup, cider, cider slushes, hones and more!
Burt’s has 26,000 maple trees that they tap for sap!
After arriving to the orchard, we walked around and checked it out.
They had acres and acres of apple trees!
And tons of pumpkins!
My hubby decided he would try out one of the apples that had fallen to the ground. 😉
The orchard grows about 40 different types of apples!
We headed inside the small building where they were selling their apples, syrup, vinegar and other goodies.
After seeing that they sold the cider donuts, we decided to order a couple with some hot apple cider!
There’s a large kitchen behind the registers where the donuts are made all day, and bags of them are lined up on counters as well.
The hot apple cider hit the spot on this cold, wet day!
After leaving here, we continued our drive.
A few minutes later, we spotted a covered bridge so we pulled over to take a few pictures.
This is the AM Foster Bridge Covered bridge and it’s a reproduction of the Martin Covered Bridge that was built in 1890.
This bridge was built in 1988-89 by its owner, Richard Walbridge Spaulding and sits on private property.
After leaving the bridge, we continued our drive.
We were now driving through West Danville and heading to a back road that is popular during the fall called Bayley-Hazen Road. It is also one of Vermont’s most historic dirt roads.
Tip: Don’t miss the largest corn maze in New England while in this area!
On the way, we spotted the Greenbank’s Hollow Covered Bridge so we made another quick stop.
The original bridge was built in the mid 1800’s however, a mill fire in 1885 leveled the bridge as well as the whole community that was located here.
The bridge was rebuilt in 1886, but the community was never rebuilt but now the Danville Historical Society is currently recovering and restoring the site that has been dormant since the 1885 fire.
Near the bridge, is a historic site marker entitled A Forgotten Village and foundations are marked as to their use in 1885.
There was a sign hanging in the bridge with a QR code that you could scan to read about the bridge and 5 other bridges located in Caledonia County.
Views from the bridge
There are several remnants of the old mill and town that once stood here.
There were also several site markers that marked the spots where the mill, homes and other structures once stood.
After leaving here, we continued our drive.
We made another quick stop when we spotted these trees that had been tapped for maple syrup.
It was so cool to see first hand how the sap was collected from the trees!
Continuing our drive
We were now on Bailey-Hazen Road making our way to the very small town of Peacham.
The history of this road begins in 1776 when Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery attempted to capture Canada. The American army needed reinforcements and supplies to continue the siege of Quebec.
Jacob Bayley, head of the frontier militia and a resident of Newbury, wrote to General George Washington about the need to build a new road to shorten existing supply routes.
In 1778-79, General Moses Hazen continued the construction of the Bayley-Hazen Military Road as far as Hazen’s Notch on Route 58—now marked by a historic site plaque. The military road was abandoned in April 1779 when news broke that the British patrols might use it as an invasion route.
As a military achievement, the Bayley-Hazen road was considered a flop. Still, nearly 250 years after it was built, the road continues to generate interest among history buffs, locals, and visitors.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of color in the trees.
A short while later, we arrived to Peacham. 
I decided to add this place to my itinerary after discovering that it had one of the most photographed places in Vermont.
And after reading that this picturesque New England town had served as the backdrop for several major motion pictures over the years.
The Peacham Congregational Church is said to be one of the most photographed buildings in all of New England. It was built in 1806.
To raise money to build the building, the Congregational Society held a public auction and sold pews. They raised $5,594.
The church was built from local trees with axes, and oxen to drag the logs to the sawmill where they were cut into logs. Stones for the foundation came from the rocks and boulders that had to be removed from the fields.
I had also read that if you drove up the hill next to the volunteer fire dept, that you could get a really cool shot of the church.
Well, we just happened to meet a local who was walking out of the church while we were taking pictures of it and we started talking to him about the church.
He told us where to go to take the best pictures…..it was at someone’s home that he knew but said to tell the man that he sent us!
Well, my hubby wasn’t too keen on that idea but I was all for it lol! I wasn’t about to miss taking pictures of this church in the most incredible setting!
So, off we went up the hill to this man’s house.
Before arriving to the man’s house, we stopped along the road to take pictures of the church but it wasn’t the best view so we continued our drive up the hill.
After arriving to the house, I got out and started walking to the door and before I could get there, the man stuck his head out the door and yelled, yes, you can take pictures of the church from here! ha ha!!
So, my hubby, feeling more at ease, got out of the car and we started taking pictures.
The views of the church from this location were amazing!!
We then spotted a swing in the man’s yard and decided to pose like “instagrammers” lol!!
I think we took 587 pictures of the church!
After taking our pictures, we headed back down the hill where we spotted a cool looking cemetery called the Peacham Corner cemetery so we decided to check it out.
The cemetery was located on a hill with beautiful views.
There were huge trees and flowers that were planted all throughout the cemetery.
It was the prettiest cemetery I had ever seen!
Some of the headstones dated back to the early 1800’s.
After leaving the cemetery, we headed to the Peacham Cafe to take pictures as this was one of the filming locations for the movie, the Spitfire Grill. 
The cafe is housed in a building that was built in the mid to late 1800’s.
We had planned on eating lunch here but unfortunately they had closed at 2:30.
Next to the cafe was a Crafts store called the Peacham Corner Guild. 
After taking our pictures, we continued our drive to our next stop.
We passed this beautiful houses in Peacham as we were leaving!
Later, we arrived to the small town of Groton.
We passed the beautiful Groton Methodist church.
The church was built in 1908.
Continuing our drive
Our drive took us through Topsham 
Click here for things to see/do in Topsham
We pulled over when we spotted this cute little horse standing by the fence!
Shortly later, we arrived to our next stop located in East Corinth.
East Corinth is a quintessential Vermont small town with charm and gorgeous scenery, but that’s not all.
East Corinth is a family friendly ski resort, which is, in fact, the longest continually running ski town in the United States. Northeast Slopes opened in 1936 and has been operating ever since.
Another interesting thing about this town is that the 1988 comedy Beetlejuice starring Alec Baldwin and Michael Keaton was filmed in this small village in rural Vermont.
And this is the reason I added it to our itinerary.
We first headed to the location of “Miss Shannon’s School for Girls”.
The building over 100 yrs old and is where Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder, attends school in the first movie
In front of the school, there’s a sign resembling the school sign from the first movie.
In 2023, a sequel was filmed here and Winona Ryder reprises her role as Lydia in the sequel, and the school is briefly featured as her daughter, Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega, bikes through the village.
We could see Beetlejuice peeking out the window from the second floor! 😉
There was a note attached to the house that listed all of the other filming locations in the town.
There was a zagnut candy wrapper taped to the school house…..the candy was featured in the movie.
The bike that was used in the movie 
After leaving here, we stopped off at another filming location.
This was the Corliss – Prescott building that was also used in the movie.
Tip: Click here to watch a YouTube video on filming locations in this area and click here to read an article about the filming locations
After this stop, we stopped again when we spotted this building, the old Meadow Meeting House in Corinth.
Continuing our drive
We passed lots of beautiful farms and rolling hills along the way.
We passed through Vershire 
Chelsea is such a charming, small town with a population of around 1300 people!
We passed this incredible home while driving through the small town.
The small, historic town was recognized in 1983 by the National Register of Historic Places as the Chelsea Village Historic District.
This designation highlights the town’s well-preserved architecture and cultural significance.
We decided to park in the town’s small town square and walk around to take a few pictures of this charming little town.
One of the unique features of Chelsea is its two commons, or greens, located in the village center. 
These open spaces serve as gathering places for the community and contribute to the town’s character.
The surrounding landscapes of Chelsea showcase the natural beauty of Vermont, with rolling hills and scenic vistas.
We parked near the Congregational Church of Chelsea.
The church was built in the years 1811-1813.
We then spotted this old, abandoned house.
After researching it, I discovered that this historic home was built around 1808 for Josiah Dana who was born in Barre, Mass. and was a son of a Congregational clergyman, and first appeared in Vermont records as representative of Chelsea in the General Assembly of 1803 which office he also held in 1806, 1808, and 1809; he was a Delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1814; and Orange County Judge from 1812 to 1820.
After photographing the church and the Dana home, we decided to continue our drive though town.
We spotted two other historic buildings…..
The building on the right was the old Hood Store. The store was built in 1818 and has continuously housed a commercial operation since its construction by Amplius Blake The building is now home to Will’s Store, a local market.
The building to the left of it is the home to the church, New Creation Fellowship.
As we continued our drive through town, we spotted this beautiful old house. The house was built in 1832 for Rufus Hyde (1809-1879) an attorney who worked at the Orange County Courthouse just a block away.
We drove past the Orange County Courthouse that was built in 1847 by Master Builder Horace Carpenter for $4,228.80.
And the Orange County Restorative Justice Center.
Our last stop in Chelsea was a historic covered bridge called, the Moxley Covered Bridge. 
This bridge was built in 1883 and is the only covered wood bridge to survive in the town of Chelsea.
It and five other covered bridges in the adjoining town of Tunbridge cross the First Branch of the White River within a distance of about seven miles, comprising one- of the most concentrated groups of covered bridges in Vermont.
The Moxley Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After this stop, we continued our drive.
Where we came up on another bridge called the Larkin Covered Bridge.
This bridge was located in Turnbridge and was built in 1902 and is one of a small number of covered bridges that were built in the early 20th century.
As we continued our drive, we passed the North Turnbridge church along the way.
Tip: Click here for more historic buildings in Turnbridge
Later, we spotted the Mill Covered Bridge located in Turnbrige.
This bridge was built in 2000 and is a replica of the original bridge that had been built in 1883. The original bridge was destroyed by an ice damage sixteen months prior to the new bridge being built.
After this stop, we continued our drive.
Shortly later, we passed this beautiful farm in Stratford. 
As of 2022, there were 6,537 farms in Vermont, which is a 4% decrease from 2017. The average size of a farm in Vermont is 180 acres.
Some of the types of farms in Vermont include dairy, maple syrup, tree fruit, vegetables and berries.
Vermont’s dairy industry produces about two-thirds of New England’s milk. The state’s dairy farms generate over $1.3 billion in annual sales and supports 7,000 jobs.
Vermont also produces 50% of the maple crop in the United States.
Continuing our drive through Strafford 
Our next stop would be the Stratford Town house.
Tip: Newfane, Peacham, Woodstock, Jamaica, Warren, and Grafton—are famous for their classic, iconic village settings. By comparison, Strafford is just as beautiful as those other towns, although not nearly as well known.
Built in 1799, the Town House — which resembles a classic New England church — is where Strafford residents have held every March Town Meeting since 1801.
The historic building sits on a small hill in the center of Strafford’s upper village, overlooking the town green.
The building is one of the oldest meeting houses in Vermont and was one of the first meeting houses to put the entrance at the tower-end and the pulpit at the other end of the building.
The town house has been featured in guidebooks, magazines and coffee table books. But photos don’t do it justice.
It is an absolutely beautiful building especially during the fall when all the surrounding trees are full of color!
After photographing the town house, we continued our drive around Strafford.
The historic district of Strafford encompasses the historic village center of Strafford that consists of nearly thirty residences and other structures built in vicinity of the Common prior to the 1850’s.
Founded in 1768, the village center was developed in the 1790s, and saw most of its growth before 1840, resulting in an assortment of predominantly Greek Revival buildings.
There are many houses located in Strafford that were built between 1780 and 1830, as well as the United Church built in 1832 and the brick store in 1834.
As we continued our drive, we spotted a huge pink house!
So, of course, we had to pull over and check it out!
We discovered the house was the Justin Smith Morrill house.
This historic homestead is Vermont’s first National Historic Landmark.
Justin Morrill grew up in Strafford and had to leave school at age 15. He had wanted to attend college, but his family did not have the means to send him.
He became self-educated in business, architecture, horticulture, and politics. He entered politics in 1854 and served in both the United States House of Representatives and Senate for nearly 44 years.
The homestead covers 6 acres and is open to the public May 24 through October 13. Tours are given Thur – Sun from 10 am to 5:00 pm for $7 pp. Children are free.
Sadly, we had arrived at around 5:45 pm so the house was closed.
However, we were still allowed to walk around the grounds as you can tour the outdoor gardens for free during the daylight hours.
The outdoor interpretive signs, including images and maps, reveal the fascinating stories behind the kitchen garden, the ornamental Victorian gardens and Morrill’s historic orchard.
Morrill built a 17-room Gothic Revival mansion in 1851 and designed the gardens and the orchard. 
All of the buildings on the property are salmon-colored to look like sandstone, and the grounds are mix of gardens and fields.
Senator Morrill primarily used this house as a summer residence, as he spent much of his time in Washington, DC where he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Union Republican, serving until his death in 1898.
In addition to the main house, several barns and sheds as outbuildings, and is set off from the road by a flush-boarded fence with granite posts, all a painted a reddish color.
The property remained in the Morrill family, until World War II. The house was eventually acquired by preservationists, who sold it to the state in 1969 for use as a Historical Site and museum.
After spending about 20 minutes walking the grounds, we headed back to our car and continued our drive.
We passed this incredible historic house in Royalton!
And this historic house in South Royalton!
The village of South Royalton was farmland prior to the arrival of the Vermont Central Railroad in 1848. By 1855, the village had 28 buildings, generally in the Greek Revival style, some of which survive today.
A particularly devastating fire in 1886 destroyed all of its commercial buildings, after which the Victorian block of brick shops lining the northwest side of Chelsea Street was built.
It was now approx. 6:15 pm and we were ready for dinner ….so we decided to eat in South Royalton at a place that I had on my itinerary called the Worthy Burger.
Tip: Click here for restaurants in South Royalton
The restaurant is housed in an 1850s railroad freight house between train tracks and a warehouse.
When we arrived, the place was packed out which we thought was unusual for a Thursday evening and a restaurant that was in the middle of nowhere!
Tip: I have later read that South Royalton is home to the Vermont School of Law where nearly 700 law-school students attend school.
After grabbing a table, we looked over the menu. 
We both decided on the mushroom Swiss burger and the truffle fries.
I know I have said this before, but this was one of the best burgers we had ever eaten!!
The restaurant cooks all of their burgers made to order over a hardwood fire and only uses 100% grass fed beef. Their fries are hand-cut every single day and fried twice in Wagyu beef tallow.
Read reviews here
Tip: The owners also own Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock and looking to open a third location in White River Junction
After dinner, we continued our drive to Woodstock where we would be spending the next two nights.
As we were driving, I kept getting notifications from the northern lights app that I had downloaded saying that Vermont was having a very high KP index.…meaning that the odds of seeing the Northern Lights was very high!
I kept looking out the window in hopes to see something! I was certain that I saw pink and green hues in the sky!
Sadly, it was too cloudy to see much of anything.
Here’s a picture I took of the Northern Lights from my house in TN back in May of this year.
It is extremely unusual to see the Northern Lights where I live so we were very excited as it was our first time ever seeing the Northern Lights!
At approximately 7:45 pm, we arrived to Woodstock.
We headed straight to our hotel as we were exhausted!
We stayed at the Shire Woodstock hotel.
Our room was really big!
It had two queen size beds and a large bathroom.
After getting settled into our room, we decided to go outside and sit by one of the many fire pits that the hotel had set up.
Read reviews for the hotel here
After a few minutes of sitting by the fire, we headed back to our room and called it a night!
Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned to Day 7!
Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, & Day 5 here
Click here to see links to all of my blog posts