Counterclockwise — north on VT-100 to the Stowe area first, then west over the Appalachian Gap and back across the Middlebury Gap
Over the Gaps
Three mountain gaps, a valley full of Vermont clichés done exactly right, and the steepest paved mile in America hiding one ridge over.
The Mad River Valley is the Vermont of the postcards — white-steepled Waitsfield and Warren strung along Route 100, covered bridges, two beloved ski hills — but the reason it's a drive is the gaps: the steep, twisting passes that cross the Green Mountain ridge. Appalachian Gap on VT-17 and Middlebury Gap on VT-125 are the two you'll cross, all hairpins and height-of-land views; one ridge over, Lincoln Gap hides the steepest paved mile of public road in the country — a 24-percent wall, closed all winter. Come for fall foliage and the gaps layer color from valley floor to ridgeline — just book ahead, because all of New England has the same idea. The gaps stay open but go icy in deep winter, and mud season in April is best skipped.
Start with coffee and a bacon-egg-and-cheese at the Three Mountain Cafe in Waitsfield (go early; the line builds). Then roll up to Waterbury for the two great Vermont pilgrimages: the Ben & Jerry's factory, where the thirty-minute tour ends in a sample and the hillside Flavor Graveyard memorializes the discontinued flavors in granite, and Cold Hollow Cider Mill, pressing cider on a 1920s rack-and-cloth press and frying the cider donuts that justify the whole stop.
Lunch up at the von Trapp Family Lodge above Stowe — yes, those von Trapps, the Sound of Music family, who rebuilt their Austria in the Vermont hills — at the Bierhall, with schnitzel and a wall of mountains out the window.
Then the gaps. Climb Appalachian Gap on VT-17 for the big ridge-top view, then work south to Middlebury Gap on VT-125, gentler and wooded, Robert Frost's old country. Just off it, walk the short loop to Texas Falls, a cascade tumbling through a rocky gorge the glaciers cut twelve thousand years ago.
Fuel up back in the valley and finish with dinner at American Flatbread — wood-fired pizza in a 1794 barn at Lareau Farm, no reservations, just a fire and a waitlist (it runs Thursday through Sunday, so plan around it) — and a night at the Best Western in Waterbury, central to the whole loop.
And hold the plan loosely — the gaps are just the spine; the valley's the wander. The plan's a backbone, not a cage: the covered bridge down a dirt lane, the farm stand with the last of the cider, the overlook where the whole valley goes gold at once, the swimming hole in the Mad River. New England in fall rewards the driver who isn't in a hurry to be anywhere. Just mind the steep grades on the descents, watch for ice if it's late in the season, and pull over when the color stops you. The best stop is the one that wasn't on the list. Go find it.
