When we have visited Vermont before, the road up to Mount Mansfield has always been closed, as soon as it starts to snow the gates at the bottom of the mountain are shut. Today however whilst we bask in 70 degrees, the road was open, so up we go! We can now see why it gets shut off at the first sign of ice or snow!Seems weird that we have actually walked part way up this road in the snow, it still seemed eerie, but not as atmospheric without the white stuff! Driving around the huge rocks was an experience, and funny how trees seem to grow on rocks! When viewed from the east or west, this mountain has the appearance of a (quite elongated) human profile, with distinct forehead, nose, lips, chin, and Adam's apple. We were chatting to a lady today that said, on their way down the mountain by car they were faced with an eighteen wheel truck trying to come the other way. It quite clearly says at the bottom no trucks allowed, he would never have got even half way up the hair pin bends. After a lot of manoeuvring he managed to reverse back down to the bottom! So glad we were not part of that, going up in a car was bad enough.

On the way back down the mountain road there is an old lodge that seems to be falling into disrepair, I hope they find the money to fix it up, I have always liked it being there, it seems to fit in just nicely.

We are staying at the lovely old Green Mountain Inn, it is listed as number 13 on the National Register of Historic Places, It boasts many colourful innkeepers, and a resident ghost called Boots berry that I can personally vouch for.