Deerfield Valley in the Spring
Top Picks in the Deerfield 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 Deerfield Valley offers as the Green Mountains come alive.
Wilmington, Vermont
Vermont Craft Beer and Chili Stroll
Hot chili. Cold beer. Live music. The joy of spring returning. That’s the recipe for what has quickly become one of the Deerfield Valley’s favorite annual traditions. Typically held in late March or early April, the Vermont Craft Beer and Chili Stroll is the ideal place to satisfy your appetite for local flavor, with more than 20 beers and ciders and over a dozen chilis to try. Participants get an overview of historic downtown Wilmington as they walk from one station to the next—a bookstore here, an art gallery there, and so on—with each stop serving up the best of southern Vermont’s chefs and brewmasters.
West Dover, Vermont
TC’s Restaurant
One of the best snowboarders in the world, four-time Olympian Kelly Clark, grew up in the Deerfield Valley. She was skiing Mount Snow as a toddler and snowboarding there by age six. Her story is told in personal memorabilia—from framed news stories to a case of medals—at TC’s Restaurant, which was opened in 1979 by her parents, Terry and Cathy, and is now run by her brother Tim and his wife, Becky. But the family’s snowboarding superstar is not TC’s only claim to fame. The popularity of its flatbread pizzas, burgers, pasta, and daily specials has also helped make TC’s the longest continually operated eatery in the Mount Snow Valley.
Jack Jump World Championships
The origins of jack jumping (or skibock, as it’s called in Europe) are unknown, though it’s thought to have started in Vermont in the mid-1800s. And no one’s entirely sure why “jack jumping” came to be the name for zooming downhill on a seat mounted to a single ski. Some say the term traces back to lumberjacks who needed a quick way to get down winter mountains. One thing we do know, however, is that the annual jack jumping competition at Mount Snow is an only-in-Vermont spectacle that shouldn’t be missed. Competitors ride their homemade jack jumpers downhill through a slalom course, hoping to clear all the gates and be first to the finish line. It’s part X Games, part high school science fair, and 100 percent fun.
HAMILTON FALLS
– Jamaica, Vermont
Of all the times to chase Vermont’s many waterfalls, the most thrilling might be spring, when a combination of rain and snowmelt transforms them into rip-roaring versions of themselves. Avid hikers can see for themselves at Hamilton Falls, which drops 125 feet down a mountain slope in the 211-acre Hamilton Falls Natural Area. From a 15-foot-deep pothole at the top of the falls, water rushes into a steep cascade nearly 50 feet long, followed by a steep series of smaller “horsetail” falls and pools. While there is a short trail from West Windham Road to the top of the falls, parking is extremely limited. Visitors are instead encouraged to hike three miles in from Jamaica State Park, following the West River Trail along an abandoned railroad bed to Switch Road Trail and a view from the bottom of the final cascade.
SHEARER HILL FARM
– Halifax, Vermont
A bed and breakfast in Vermont is a classic for a reason regardless of season, but Shearer Hill Farm comes alive in the spring. The season’s warmer days and chilly nights are the trigger for sugar maples to start producing sap, making spring in Vermont a lively, sweet season. On-site, the B&B has its own 80-year-old sugarhouse, tapping century-old maple trees on the property. During the spring, they welcome guests inside to watch the process or even help turn sap into maple syrup. Shearer Hill Farm also offers candle-making workshops and homemade baked apples for breakfast.
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.
