Natural Attractions
Barre: ★ Rock of Ages Granite Quarry: Tours [RA] – The walls of this magnificent Vermont quarry are 600 feet tall. It has been a working quarry since the 1800s. A museum and a video theater that tells the story of granite. On a guided shuttle tour, you can peer down into the vast granite pits.
Burlington: The Burled Forest- a small patch of woods located on a sandy bluff over the North Beach where Mother Nature has truly left her mark. Each tree in the woods sports burls (large bumps) all over their trunks. These burls were created by the fierce winds off Lake Champlain, which manipulate the fast-growing box elders into these warped and gnarly natural wonders.
Hartford: ★ Quechee Gorge – Quechee Gorge State Park is one of Vermont’s most popular natural areas. The focal point of the park is the gorge that drops as far as 165 feet to the rapids of the Ottauquechee River.
Manchester: Lyle Brook Falls – 2.5 miles each way using a relatively smooth trail with steady mild elevation.
Stowe: Moss Glenn Falls – 125 ft, the hike up and back during your trip to Moss Glen Falls is approximately 2.9 miles in length.
Green Mountain By-way/ Scenic Route 100 – runs along the state’s north-south axis, from Massachusetts to Canada, for about 215 miles. It parallels the crest of the stunning Green Mountains, passing several tourist attractions and towns on the way—particularly ski resort towns like Ludlow, Killington, and Stowe.
National Parks and Monuments
Appalachian National Scenic Trail (GA to ME)
Woodstock: Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park – The park preserves the site where Frederick Billings established a managed forest and a progressive dairy farm. Mansion, Visitor center, trails
Offbeat Landmarks and Oddities
Barre: Granite Sculptures of Hope Cemetery [RA} – Unique tombstones
Bennington:
- Bennington Museum, Lincoln with Dumb Hat and Nude Boy [RA} – Unflattering statue of Lincoln displayed this at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
- ★ World’s Tallest Ladderback Chair [RA]
- Bennington Battle Monument [RA] – Tallest Thing in Vermont, commemorates a Revolutionary War battle that was fought over five miles away, he monument is over 306 feet high, resembles a rifle bullet made of rock, and is topped by a gilt star that serves as a lightning rod. Elevator goes to viewing level.
Brattleboro: Sea Serpent [RA] – (Under repair) A multi-humped dragon made of metal, half-surfaced in the West River
Bristol: Lord’s Prayer Rock [RA] – Lord’s Prayer carved onto a slanted slab of granite along Route 17, scant miles from Middlebury’s grave of the Egyptian Mummy.
Brookfield: Floating Bridge [RA] – A bridge that actually floats on the water’s surface.
Burlington:
- Church Street Marketplace
- Monument to a Lake Monster [RA] – people along Lake Champlain have reported seeing a monster in it.
- World’s Tallest File Cabinet [RA] – 38 drawers tall, made of real file cabinets welded atop each other into a skinny, towering pile.
Cavendish: Phineas Gage: A Rod Went Through His Skull [RA] – memorial plaque honors Phineas P. Gage, who had a 13-pound iron rod blown into his skull, through his brain, and out the top of his head and survived.
Cuttingsville: Bowman Mausoleum’s Mourning Man [RA] – a stone man stepping up to the bronze door of an ornate cemetery mausoleum of his deceased wife.
Dorset: Oldest Marble Quarry in the USA [RA] – Long abandoned, the Norcross-West Marble Quarry is conveniently right next to a highway. Big marble blocks and a water-filled pit are used as a swimming hole. Historical marker out front.
Glover: Bread and Puppet Museum – Creepy Giant Puppets [RA] – The museum is the reliquary of the Bread and Puppet Theater, founded in the 1960s by German immigrant Peter Schumann.
Graniteville: Hope Cemetery
Leicester: Queen Connie: Gorilla and Beetle [RA] – a strange statue of a gorilla’ with an upraised left arm holding a real Volkswagen Beetle.
Manchester: Hildene – Mansion with Lincoln artifacts
Marlboro: Southern Vermont Natural History Museum [RA] – An albino porcupine and three extinct birds are among the extensive stuffed menagerie
Middlebury: West Cemetery [RA] – Grave of a cremated Mummy
New Haven: Evergreen Cemetery [RA] – Grave with a Window, Small square of glass in the ground that leads straight down to the face of long-dead Timothy Clark Smith, who feared being buried alive.
Pittsford:
Post Mills: ★ Vermontasaurus [RA] – Depending on where you stand when looking at it, the wooden sculpture could be a prehistoric beast or a collapsed barn that somehow came to life and sprouted feet. 25 feet high and 122 feet long.. Other sculptures on site.
Proctor:
Putney: ★ Santa’s Land USA [RA] – We are a small, family park opened from the summer until Christmas Eve. Shop in our gift shop, take a ride on the Alpine Express Train, Fun House, Mini Golf & Giant Slide.
Rutland: Rutland County Vietnam Veterans Memorial [RA] – A helmeted soldier lay face up and frozen — half-in, half-out of a block of marble
Salisbury: Big Lady Squirrel [RA] – “Kampy” has stood at a campground entrance for years, although maybe not as long as her Victorian striped bathing suit would suggest.
Shelburne:
St. Johnsbury:
- ★ Bug Art of John Hampson [RA] – art made of thousands of bugs
- The Dog Chapel [RA] – small chapel where dogs are welcome
Waterbury: ★ Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour and Flavor Graveyard [RA]
West Rutland: West Rutland Art Park [RA] – Steampunk Locomotive Built of Junk and other folk art
Williamstown: Knight’s Spider Web Farm [RA] – harvested spider webs sold as art.
Woodstock:
- Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park – working farm and a Victorian mansion
Sources:
https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions/vermont-usvt.htm