The Green Mountain State
Vermont, the upside down brother of New Hampshire, is just doing so many things right! This incredible state is full of maple syrup sugar houses, the great cheese trail, plenty of hikes, breweries as far as the eye can see, and is super dog friendly. Our first impression of Vermont was very positive starting out at their awesome visitors center. The building is packed with your average visitors center stuff, but then has a really incredible hydroponic garden attached to the building. It’s basically a two story green house with multiple plants grown in pools of water. It was really neat to see.
Outside the visitors center, is the first Vietnam Memorial in the Nation. It is a nice memorial with an intricate entrance complete with a variety of state flags. There is a statue in the front, and then you can walk around the wall and there is an amphitheater with a memorial spot in the center. It is a really nice tribute to the incredible men that fought over in Vietnam.
After being thoroughly welcomed, we headed to an authentic sugar house. We wanted to get a taste of the sweet fresh maple syrup so it was exciting. After searching through the MANY sugar houses, we chose the Silloway Maple company. It is a family owned and operated maple syrup company and they offer personalized tours and tastings for free.
The nice lady that gave us our tour! 
Some of the different shades of syrup.
We explored the sugar house, got to view the various machines that are used to process syrup, and then tasted the various different types. We learned about how the color of the syrup is reflected by the time of year and the temperature the trees are at during the harvesting of the maple sap.
Machine used to take the water out of the sap. 
Machine used to boil and purify the syrup.
We viewed the interact system of plastic tubing that is set up to constantly process sap while not harming the trees. And most importantly, we sampled plenty of maple candies. The whole little cabin smelled so sweet and delicious.
The sugar house was solar powered, and they use fire wood to fire up the sugar boiler. This being said, there is the most impressive stack of firewood I’ve ever seen stacked up outside the house.
Some of the Wood stored for the Spring 
Wood used to power the sugar boiler.
It was a really delicious and informative stop. Don’t worry we took some syrup to go!
While touring the farm we met this pup! 
He was one good boy!
After stocking up on sweets and peaking at our sugar high we headed North. Following along the cheese trail (thanks to our brochure) we were able to sort the various dairy farms we passed along the way. The Great Cheese Trail map breaks down which farms are open to the public, which ones offer tours, and which have a small store for taking cheese to go. We trucked along in hopes of making it to The Red Rocks Park Natural Area. It was beautiful in the fall!
The trees were a vibrant yellow and they made for a nice contrast to the dark green moss that covered most of the rocks. We chose the lake view hike and ventured through the woods and boulders leading to the water.
Giant Boulders 
Rock Ridges that border the Trail
The rocks in the woods along the path were normal colored for the most part, until we reached the shore line. Maybe its something in the water but the rocks along the lake are a bright rich red.
We imagined the view would be even better enjoyed from a boat to get the full shoreline, but we still enjoyed our view! The park falls along the Champlain Lake and the body of water is enormous. There is water for as far as the eye can see. You can sit there for a long time just marveling at the miles and miles of water. This lake actually separates Vermont and northern New York, so it is shared by these two states.
There are many overlook spots that can be enjoyed along your stroll. We found a nice overlook, cooked dinner, and watched the sunset. Beautiful!
Chili. That was our dinner of choice. Which on a chilly day, didn’t seem like such a bad idea. But boy were we wrong… A fun thing to note about any trails in Vermont is the IMPRESSIVE amount of dogs you will pass along the way. Which on a normal day is really awesome, we’d go as far to say the actual best. But when you are hauling around cans of chili trash you become a little too popular among our four legged friends. That’s right, when we finished cooking our dinner (even during it) we were greeted by many energetic doggies. There are only trash cans at the front near the trailheads, so we had to carry those cans with us all the way back to the car. We probably got thoroughly inspected by over 20 dogs on the hike back. So if you ever take up the art of dog-napping, carrying chili cans is the way to go. Someone should have informed Cruella de Vil. Also the chili made the whole car ride a very gassy expedition, so that’s always a lovely side note!
After hiking around and the great chili issue of 2018, we decided to take part in the Brewery Challenge. Vermont has started a LOT of craft breweries, almost on every block. So, the Vermont Brewers Association have set up a program called the Brewery Challenge Passport Program. At participating “beer worth finding” breweries customers are give a tiny little beer passport. As you visit various breweries they stamp your passport. You can mail your little passport in to the company and depending on your amount of stamps, you will be rewarded with various prizes. It’s pretty neat.
The 3 Inch Passport 
Various Participating Locations
With so many of these brewies starting up, you can buy beer for really really cheap. I am talking $3 or $4 draft pours. I am not sure how long these prices will stay low, becasue some of these breweries were popping for a week day night.
Many of the places we visited were decorated in very modern decor. A lot of them had really fun outdoor spaces, that we imagined would have been a good time during the summer. The people were really friendly and we got a cool postcard coaster at Zero Gravity. Each place had their own little twist and made them unique hang out spots.
Perhaps the most unique ones was located next to the World’s Tallest Filing Cabinet. That was a top stop for us. I mean come on Vermont, as if you didn’t have enough going for you, you just had to throw in some of the world’s greatest. I must say, it was tall. The Switchback Brewing Company even had an IPA dedicated to this national treasure. It was a fun quirky little touristy touch. The bottom is covered in stickers by visitors and locals alike. Don’t worry they lock the cabinets so not just anyone can store documents inside.
We tried a few flights to get a full taste of Vermont. Normally we LOVE west coast brews, but some of the ones we tasted could have easily been some of the best on the East Coast. Good Job Burlington for repping some East Coast goodness.
After exploring the local night life, we headed to the Vermont Pub and Brewery to FINALLY try some cheese. We had to get the cheese plate to try the most Vermont cheeses as we possibly could. OH MY GOODNESS. Each one was so unique and delicious. There wasn’t a bad cheese on the plate. They pair it with honey, apples, crackers, homemade mustard, and a spicy jelly to clear your pallet in between tastings. Our favorite was the Boucher Farms Bleu Cheese. It is literally to die for! I think even if you don’t like blue cheese you would still love this creamy goodness.
Well, I can’t top cheese because it is literally God’s gift to mankind. So I will leave you with this Vermont saying, “Vermont: Bet you can’t name two of our towns!” We enjoyed exploring this underrated state. Have a beautiful week.
God Bless, McKayla