Cumulative Official Town Count | Cumulative Unofficial Town Count |
27 | 15 |
On October 28, 2023 we drove in search of covered bridges in northern Verm0nt, not far from the Canadian border. Enosburg Falls (an unofficial town), Montgomery, and Belvidere are three towns which yielded 8 covered bridges in less than a half-day of exploration. (There would have been 9, but one of the covered bridges is apparently garaged and being repaired at the moment). And, it being halloween weekend, we saw all sorts of fun decorations.
Enosburg Falls (the village we found when looking for the official town of Enosburg, which we never found but I'm counting anyway) is a lively small town in Vermont. It has under 1500 residents (as of 2020), a town green where there was a Halloween parade in progress, several eateries (we tested Bumblebee Bistro, where I would return), several stores, and an opera house built in 1892 which is still hosting shows/ acting as a town meeting space. The village has a Bridge of Flowers & Light which I'm assuming is lit at night, as well as a fairly bustling Main Street. This was all a pleasant surprise, as we went there is search of Hopkins Covered Bridge, our first bridge of the day, and didn't think there would be much to Enosburg Falls. Happily, we were wrong.
Montgomery takes great pride in its 6 covered bridges, and is, in fact, known as Vermont's Covered Bridge Capital. It also happens to be the town with the most covered bridges in the country! Montgomery is the town closest to the ski resort Jay Peak, and like many small towns near resorts, it is really cute and alive: lots of pride flags, well maintained homes, inns, shops, etc. And it also has all those bridges:
Longley Bridge (1863)
Comstock Bridge (1883)
Creamery Bridge (1883) -- If you decide to visit this one, do NOT take the back roads to/ from there unless you want to experience a rutted and rock-laden single lane dirt road which takes you up and over a mountain.
Hutchins Bridge (1883)
Hectorville Bridge (1883) -- garaged right now while being repaired so we didn't see this one
Fuller Bridge (1890) -- this one is right in the town center, across from the post office
Montgomery is a town I would not only return to, but would recommend to others. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but the area is beautiful, there are so many things to do in and around town, and it has that quaint Vermont small town feel folks come looking for when they visit.
When exploring Vermont, I find it infinitely reassuring to have a detailed road atlas of the state in my car. Oftentimes, there is no cell coverage in the remote areas, and it's important to know where you are. (Thank GOD my father and fifth grade teacher made sure I knew how to read a map!) Anyway, looking at the map as we were figuring out our route home from Montgomery, we saw that we were practically passing two additional covered bridges -- in a town called Belvidere. Well, I'm not sure I'd call Belvidere a "town" as it had a population of a whopping 358 (in 2020), and other than the town clerk's office and a school, there were no other municipal buildings, nor a main street, nor any retail shops in evidence. BUT, there are two covered bridges in town: (Lumber) Mill Bridge (1887) and Morgan Bridge (1871).
Hope you've enjoyed this little foray into some of the covered bridges in Vermont. Stay tuned for future editions of the Donnarama Dishes VT-251 explorations!
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