Stone Valley in the Spring
Top Picks in the Stone Valley
In the spring, Vermont’s landscapes wake up from their long winter’s slumber into the riot and color of renewal. Maple sap flows in forests, warm days make for sunny spring skiing, and trees and flowers begin to bud. Hand-picked by the editors of Yankee Magazine, these 5 highlights are just some of what the Stone Valley offers as the Green Mountains come alive.
Rutland Murals and Sculptures
Like something out of a Road Runner cartoon, a tunnel “opens” into a brick wall on Rutland’s Wales Street. At Marketplace Park, a peregrine falcon peers at passersby. On Merchants Row, Batman crashes through a five-story building. Elephants, giraffes, tropical fish, and whales turn up throughout the business district, along with a child caped in a billowing Ukrainian flag and a field of giant wildflowers—they’re all among Rutland’s two dozen downtown murals. The city’s outdoor art gallery continues with more than a dozen sculptures, which include marble tributes to local luminaries such as Olympic skier Andrea Mead Lawrence, Rotary Club founder Paul Harris, and the abolitionist Martin Henry Freeman, who served as the first Black president of a U.S. college.
Killington, Vermont
Green Mountain National Golf Course
The last stragglers of the ski season might be cruising a certain nearby mountain, but early May in Killington is the kickoff for golf season at Vermont’s first municipal course. Regularly ranked as one of state’s finest courses by Golf Digest and other experts, Green Mountain National has a par-71, Gene Bates–designed layout that takes full advantage of Killington’s alpine terrain. There are plenty of changes in elevation, and greens that reward careful putting (the 40-yard-deep, three-tiered green on the 12th hole is a special challenge). Views along the tree-lined fairways are spectacular.
Peter Huntoon Gallery
Throughout his 30-year career as an artist, Peter Huntoon has explored Vermont in all its seasons and all its many moods. And his odometer has the mileage to prove it. Based in the former spa town of Middletown Springs, he roves throughout the state to capture its meadows and mountains, rivers and lakes, as well as the character of its communities as seen in village streets, historic retail blocks, and steepled churches. Every other week, Huntoon adds a new painting to his project, “A Day in Vermont,” which he shares in a folksy and often poetic newsletter that goes out to more than 10,000 subscribers. Huntoon welcomes visitors at his studio and gallery—but given his roaming nature, it’s best to call ahead.
MAPLE FESTIVAL
– Poultney, Vermont
Poultney’s maple producers and maple lovers set aside a weekend in March to celebrate Vermont’s sweetest crop, but tours of more than half a dozen local sugarhouses are just the start. There’s a craft and food fair, horse-drawn wagon rides, and a tree-tapping competition at the former Green Mountain College campus. The most unusual twist to the festivities is a duo of bicycling events—a race and a more laid-back, all-ages ride— in which participants stop at back-road sugarhouses along the way. “A feast of mud, slush and maple syrup,” it’s been called. Still want more maple? Drop in at the pancake breakfast or the maple ham dinner or both.
THUNDERING BROOK FALLS
– Killington, Vermont
Kent Brook indeed thunders, as snowmelt and spring rains power its 140-foot descent down a rugged, narrow rock cliff. Visitors of all ages and abilities can get a front-row seat to the show, since the falls are located on the first and only portion of the Appalachian Trail to be made universally accessible. From the parking lot on River Road, a 900-foot-long, level wooden boardwalk offers great views of the valley of the Ottauquechee River, which rises nearby. Then a short and gently ascending gravel path leads to a viewing platform overlooking the cataract itself.
More to See and Do
Places to Visit In the Spring
Yankee Magazine’s editors hand-picked 5 places to visit in each Vermont region. Explore things to do in spring statewide.
