Vermont Fall 2025: A Quiet Season, a Long Drive, and the Colors You Have to Go Find
Not every fall season is a showstopper. Vermont in 2025 was quieter than usual, fewer of those peak bursts of color that make foliage chasers lose their minds, more subtle, more restrained. And honestly? It was still Vermont in the fall, which means it was still beautiful in ways that are hard to explain to someone who has not driven those roads in October.
My approach to Vermont fall trips is simple. I drive. I find things. I stop when something catches my eye, and I keep going when it does not. I do not have a checklist of must-see spots, nor do I follow a specific route. There is something about letting Vermont reveal itself at its own pace that feels right, especially in a quieter season when the color is hiding in pockets rather than announcing itself from every hillside.
The moody days were my favorite this trip. Everyone chases the sunny blue sky fall photo, and I understand why: the light is perfect, the colors are warm, and everything pops. But there is something a gray sky does to fall foliage that sunny days cannot replicate. The reds go deeper. The yellows get richer. The whole scene feels a little more alive somehow, a little more honest. I got one of those days in Vermont, and I made the most of it.
The Robert Frost Trail was a stop that delivered everything you want from a fall walk in New England. Color, calm, crisp mountain air, the particular quiet that settles over a wooded trail when the leaves are turning, and there is no wind. I stayed longer than I planned, which is always the sign of a good stop.
Driving up Mount Okemo gave a wider view of the valley and the surrounding hills, the kind of perspective that reminds you how much fall color is actually out there even when the season is understated. From up there, you could see it all stretching out, patches of orange and red and yellow against the green that had not quite let go yet.
The Vermont roads themselves are part of the experience in a way that is hard to separate from the photography. Every turn brings something different: a covered bridge, a red barn, a hillside that has gone fully orange, a field with mountains behind it doing something interesting with the light. You just never know what is around the next bend, and that is half of why I keep going back.
This was not Vermont's most dramatic fall. But it was still Vermont in fall, and that is always enough for me.
In some seasons, you have to work a little harder to find the beauty. This was one of those. Worth every mile of driving to find it.
