We struggled a bit to find things to do in the Woodbury area. While there are lots of ponds and lakes, there are very few with public swimming access (lots of boat access though). There also are not as many hikes as we had hoped, but we did manage to find some. Our favorite was the North Branch Cascades Trail , which was a nice 2 mile trail that follows the river with several dedicated swimming holes by nice little waterfalls. We also hiked up Spruce Mountain and climbed the fire tower to get a great view of the mountains. Finally we took a gentle stroll through the 200 year old abandoned granite quarry in Barre, VT where we got to see the massive piles of rock they moved out and all the unique carvings people had made in the remains.

The boys and I also had a ton of fun at the Ben and Jerry’s factory tour. Our tour guide was awesome! Her cow and ice cream puns were fantastic and the boys loved getting to hear all the facts she had to share. We also toured the Morse Farms and Sugarworks, where we saw the giant evaporator they used to make thousands of gallons of maple syrup a year.

We fit in as much swimming as we could. It was still very hot here and we managed to find both a community pool in Montpelier and a nice local swimming pond by the campground.

We explored Montpelier quite a bit. It is our nation’s smallest state capital city and it made for a very walkable and enjoyable place to explore. We had a chance to check out their farmer’s market right next to the state capital building after doing a bit of touristy window shopping.