When we were planning our time in Vermont, I was excited when I saw that we’d be in the state when the 40th Annual Quechee Balloon Festival would be held.
There wasn’t any affordable accommodation nearby though, so that weekend we were staying more than an hour to the west in Brandon. The Quechee Balloon Festival isn’t pet-friendly, so it meant we’d only be able to spend a few hours there because we’d have to get back to Truffles. The admission cost for the entire weekend was only $15 per person, but it didn’t seem worth spending $30 for the two of us to only spend a few hours there.
We decided to still head to Quechee in the hope of seeing some hot air balloons from a distance, but brought Truffles along for a pet-friendly activity – visiting the Quechee Gorge.
We parked at Quechee State Park and walked across Quechee Gorge Bridge which, as the name suggests, goes over the gorge. It has high barriers for safety, but in the center of the bridge they’ve provided some small openings to allow visitors to get photos.
The visitor center and gift shop is on the other side of the bridge, so we stopped there to get a little more information about the gorge. They provided us with a trail map, but that proved to be unnecessary as it’s very straightforward finding your way around.
We started by heading down to the bottom of the gorge. It’s less than half a mile and the path is mostly gravel, so it wasn’t a problem walking down in my flip-flops. It gets fairly steep at points though which means the walk up is a little harder.
There’s a lookout spot as you go down where you can get some views of the Ottauquechee River.
Once you reach the bottom of the gorge, there are all kinds of rocks that you can sit on and walk over. Be careful though as some of the rocks are a little slick.
I decided to do a little exploring, so walked along the bank back up the river. Despite having flip-flops on, it wasn’t too hard climbing up and across the rocks.
There were several other people at the gorge the day we visited as it was a Saturday afternoon. One family was enjoying a dip in the river as there was a fairly deep swimming hole which didn’t have a strong current.
Truffles joined me for some of the exploration, until it got a little narrower and I wanted both hands free to climb along the bank.
There was a waterfall on the other side of the river. We’d had a reasonable amount of rain around that time, so I imagine the waterfall’s not quite as strong during drier weather.
There were some beautiful views looking back up the Ottauquechee River towards Quechee Gorge Bridge.
After spending a little while at the bottom of the gorge – and once Truffles had gotten attention from as many people as she could – we headed back uphill and continued along the trail to Quechee Gorge Dam.
Based on the map we’d gotten from the visitor center, the trail was supposed to continue further to Dewey’s Mill Pond. However, it appeared to be blocked off, so we headed back along the path we’d come in on.
Final Thoughts
We didn’t end up seeing any hot air balloons, but I’m glad we visited Quechee Gorge. It’s a beautiful area and it was a nice walk without being too strenuous.
Address
Quechee Gorge Visitor Center, 5966 Woodstock Rd, Quechee, VT 05059
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