Not all travel adventures are far from home. Nearby Smugglers Notch is beautiful any time of year. The road through the Notch is closed in winter, but that makes it a nice place to walk or ski or snowshoe, depending on conditions. Most of the road is clear of snow now, as can be seen in the video of the waterfall at the end of this post, but at the height of land on the road (photo above) there was still plenty of snow today.
The photo below shows the sign at the beginning of the Sterling Pond Trail. While the trail is open in winter, summer and fall, it is closed in the spring until the snow melts and the ground dries out.
King Rock is next to the road a short ways down the Stowe side:
A bronze plaque on the rock, to the right of and above Nancy, says:
King Rock
6000 tons
Fell From the Side of
Mt Mansfield Spring of 1910
Tablet Placed By
Mrs. C.F. Eddy
And Womens Club of Stowe
1941
One of the notable rock formations in Smugglers Notch is the Hunter and His Dog, visible in the photo below:
A prominent feature in the Notch is Elephant's Head:
To my knowledge the best reference on the history of Smugglers Notch is Mansfield: The Story of Vermont's Loftiest Mountain, by Robert L. Hagerman (Essex Publishing Company, 1971):
Chapter 7 is about Smugglers Notch. (There was a second edition of this book, which I don't have, published in 1975.)
The snow was melting everywhere on our walk today, as in this waterfall beside the road on the Cambridge side:
1 comment:
I was searching of "mimetoliths" earlier today on google, and came across the Hunter and His Dog, notable to me as it was in my home state of Vermont. However, I could not find any photos post the 1960s, until I found yours whilst searching for King Rock. Glad to know the formation still exists!
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