Fall Foliage in Vermont - Lake Carmi State Park and Vermont Orchards - 2025/10/04

Leaving Jay Peak, our group continued to the West, searching for more beautiful hillsides in Vermont. We weren't disappointed. 

As we drove, we set up the music in the car to play songs like "Wonderful World of Color", "What a Wonderful World", "Colors of the Wind", and many songs from John Denver. Just the right sort of tunes to put you in the mood to see the beauty out here. 

And one of our more clever ideas was to bring along the kids' walkie-talkies. We've got 3 of them, one for each car, so that even here in the mountains, we can talk back and forth as we're driving. There were many times where we'd see amazing colors out one side of the window and relay the message to all the cars to pay attention in that direction. 

Our destination is Lake Carmi State Park. 

Apparently they're closed for the season, so there's no amenities, rangers, or anything like that, but the gates are open and the roads are clear. 

We stopped at the main gate just for a few minutes to get checked in for our flights home tomorrow, while Tyler and Rita continued further into the park to look for a place to settle down and eat a picnic lunch. 

Wow. 

Ty and Rita come back up to the front of the park and reported that they'd found a perfect spot for us to all enjoy lunch. 

By the water and looking out at the fall trees? Yes, I think that's a perfect spot too!

We brought out all the goodies we've been carrying with us. Chips, crackers, meats, cheeses, spreads, fruits, and more. It was quite the feast. 

Loving skipping rocks with Pop Pop. 

Can't pass up the opportunity to get a good photo. 

And leaving the place in a better state than we found it, picking up any stray trash we see. 

With full bellies, we headed out to our next destination. And the trees along the way were pretty spectacular. 

We're at the Vermont Orchards! This is our first opportunity for apple picking this year! 

I love that you only pay for the apples you pick. There's no entry fee and there's not minimum bag fee. 

There's quite a few varieties of apples in season, but we're after the best. We love those Honey Crisp apples a lot. We were told to head up the hillside and head to the back. The front trees might look a bit bare, but keep going. 

And so, up we went. 

And boy did we hit the motherload! So many apples! 

Since we are traveling back tomorrow, there's no sense in getting a ton. Everyone got one or two apples each to enjoy however they wanted. I want to spread maple cream on mine once we get back to the Couture Maple Shop! 

Checking out at the shack below, along with a half-dozen apple cider donuts (which were properly coated in cinnamon-sugar), our total came out to exactly $20. We were all pretty impressed. 

We nibbled a donut, but decided these would be better if we heated them up first. We'll save them for later. 

Our next stop of the trip is Canada! But wait! I know there's import restrictions for things like fruits, cheeses, and meats... I wasn't thinking about that and everything we've got in our cooler. It's for personal use, but not everything is in the original packaging. Instead of risking it, we'll take a trip back to the Maple Farm, via a different route, and then head into Canada after that. And it was so good that we did! This alternate route we followed had some of the most beautiful scenery of the entire trip!