Simply Gorge-ous!

Vermont Adventure
Day 2

We started our day with a fabulous breakfast provided by our hostess, Charlotte. We had feather-light scones, fresh fruit with fresh yogurt on the side, the fluffiest waffles I’ve ever eaten with fresh peaches on top. I wanted to take a photo but I’m trying not to be one of those obnoxious people who photographs every meal!

After breakfast we set out for Quechee Gorge. On the way I insisted that Mark stop at Scotland By the Yard, because it made me think of Mr. Tootlepedal.

Importers of everything Scottish.

I bought a lapel pin of the Robertson clan crest. My mother’s mother was a Robertson and since I have no real cultural/ethnic roots I always claim to be Scotch/Irish (Scotch on my mother’s side, Irish on my father’s). It’s probably a stretch, but I feel my red hair bears me out. 🙂

We proceeded to Quechee Gorge and parked at the visitor’s center. The man at the center was extremely friendly and helpful and gave us a map of the hiking trails. We decided to hike to the bottom of the gorge first. Here is the back of the visitor’s center, which was prettier than the front.

Quechee Gorge visitor’s center.

I took plenty of photos along the way down the trail but none of them are really worth posting. It was a very hazy, overcast day, which you can tell by the pictures. There seems to be a haze hanging over everything. The temperature was actually very mild but it was humid. Once at the bottom, we made our way across the rocks so we could see all the way up the gorge to the bridge.

Looking upstream toward the Quechee Gorge Bridge.

We then made our way back up to the top and crossed the bridge twice. I took photos looking downstream.

Vermont’s Grand Canyon

A photo simply cannot convey the vastness of the gorge.

I tried to get a close-up of the rapids.

The rapids

We crossed to the other side of the bridge and looked upstream.

Looking up the Ottauquechee River.

I zoomed all the way out to see if I could get the dam pond at the far end of the gorge.

The pond

Since we weren’t tired out yet, we decided to hike to the dam and Dewey’s Pond.  I was able to get a decent photo of the bridge.  The history of the bridge was quite fascinating.  We read all about it at the visitor’s center.

The Quechee Gorge Bridge.

The original wooden trestle bridge was built for the railroad in the mid-1800’s and was built in a month!  Can you imagine?!  That would be a two-year project in today’s world!

The dam is not the most attractive thing in the world.

The small dam.

The river is beautiful though.

The Ottauquechee River.

While standing at the fence separating the trail from the dam, Mark looked down and saw this frog. Of course I had to get a photo.

Leopard frog

I had to hang over the fence and zoom all the way in.  The photo was good but there was yucky stuff at the bottom of the dam, so I cropped that out.

We walked a bit farther on the path between the river and the pond but you couldn’t really see much because of the trees on the river side and the reeds on the pond side, so we turned around and headed back.

Lunch was at the Quechee Diner, which has an old-fashioned dining car. We ate at the counter. Unfortunately they were understaffed, and very busy, so the wait was long for our food, but it tasted good.  (I actually took this photo after we had eaten and shopped, so the crowd had thinned out by then, which is why there aren’t a lot of cars out front.)

The Quechee Diner

After lunch we shopped at the Quechee Gorge Villiage which has a Cabot Creamery store and a big antique mall.

By time we returned to the B&B I was pretty tired, but Mark didn’t want to sit around our room, so we drove into downtown Woodstock (I was tired of walking), parked, and went in and out of the shops.  The sun came out late afternoon and it was a lovely evening.

Downtown Woodstock, VT

We ate dinner at Pi Brick Oven restaurant and got a table on the street side patio. we ordered sausage and fennel pizza (the sausage is from the local butcher shop in town) and oh my gosh, it was the BEST pizza I have ever had. Again, no photo, sorry!

Since I had barely slept in two nights, Mark finally took pity on me and let us go back to our room at the Inn and relax!

Next stop — the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park!