Chasing Fall Colors: Camping & Hiking at Grout Lake, Vermont
Ever since Ryan and I took our first camping trip together back in the spring of 2021, I’d been itching for another. So when Fall Break afforded us an extra long weekend, we took the opportunity to seek out some fall foliage in one of the premier scenic spots in the U.S: Vermont. When I was applying to college, I toured one up in Vermont, and I had fond memories of the stunning vibrant leaves and rustic charm of the state. We settled on Grout Pond in southern Vermont, near Stratton, nestled in Green Mountain National Forest, as our destination.
Green Mountain National Forest is one of only two national forests in New England, and it was established in 1932 to preserve this forest from overlooking, fire, and flooding. It now include almost 400,000 acres of federally owned land. You can find a variety of wildlife here, including beaver, moose, coyote, black bear, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and ruffed grouse.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, we obsessively checked Instagram to see if we would miss the leaf-turning, as the exact time that fall foliage is best viewed varies depending on weather that year. The general recommendation is to visit between the first weekend in October (when the leaves usually start to change), but before October 20 (when the leaves usually fall). We didn’t have much choice about timing because we were constrained by my university’s schedule for Fall Break, so we visited the weekend of October 23, 2021. Luckily, we still caught the tail-end of fall foliage viewing that year.
The drive to Grout Pond takes you from Arlington down Kelly Stand Road, which begins as a normal road and eventually becomes gravel the further away from civilization you get. It’s a stunning introduction to the kind of views you’ll get during your time in Vermont, as you pass through forests and snake alongside the Roaring Branch River. This wooden bridge over the river was too beautiful for us not to stop to take some photos.
We arrived to the campground around 5 pm, and the sun set around 6 pm (early) due to the surrounding mountain peaks. We opted for one of the drive-up camping spots away from the lake, though Grout Pond features several sites that can be walked, hiked, or paddled to. That first evening, we had to hurry to get our tent set up and start on dinner before we lost the light. We’d arrived here straight from Kentucky, where an October day is usually pretty dry and in the 60’s (or even 70’s lately), so it was a little bit of climate shock for it to be SO chilly and rainy, despite us having researched the weather beforehand. We didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to start a fire when all the wood was damp (it was only our second camping trip ever, so cut us some slack), so we had snacks for dinner and retired to the tent early.
It ended up being cold overnight. Like frost on the inside of the tent cold. I was very glad for my mummy-style cold-weather sleeping bag (shout out for my mom for the birthday gift). On our second day, we actually went into town and bought a camp stove from one of the outdoors stores there, so we didn’t have a repeat of the previous evening’s failures at making a fire. We definitely could not have survived cold-weather camping like this without hot food, and that camp stove was a great investment that we’ve already gotten a lot of use out of.
Our first morning, we woke up early and hiked one of the trails at Grout Pond. This easy 2.6-mile trail loops around the lake and provides beautiful views of the surrounding forest, as well as the water. The trail was very muddy, but for most of the worst sections, they had wooden boards laid across the trail. We were worried at the start of our hike that we wouldn’t see any fall foliage, but as we continued further into the forest, we caught more and more glimpses of vivid yellows, oranges, and reds still clinging to the smaller trees.
Our overall experience at Grout Pond was wonderful, and I can’t wait to return to the area again—next time, hopefully during peak fall foliage viewing!
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to read about my other hiking adventures, please click on the “Hiking” category at the top of the post.