Vermont: A Red State

A red state, a yellow state, a gold and brown state. The Green Mountains in October are anything but, though the conifers do shine through in places. The lakes are shock still in the mornings, with wisps of mists curling above and clinging to their surfaces.

This was the first good leaf season I've had since we first got the place in Killington, in fact, my first leaf season in Vermont in fourteen years, when Sherry and I marked our first anniversary with a Vermont Bicycle tour. This Columbus Day weekend we would be joined by my sister and brother in law, and another friend.

The lakes along Route 100 have held my interest since I first came this way. I love how still and mirror-like they can be, and despite many attempts, never quite got what I imagined from a photograph of them.



I'm getting close, though, with this scene of Echo Lake taken from its eastern shore on the beach at Camp Plymouth State Park. The panorama is made from five individual frames, and you can click on it (and any other picture on this blog) to see a larger version. It was taken around eight o'clock on the morning of my forty-ninth birthday, as the sun was fully hitting Tiny Mountain, with the lake mostly still in the shade of the trees, providing the perfect mirror image. Another reason it's called Echo Lake.


Sherry and I did a little driving around ourselves, having arrived a few days early. On our way up on Thursday I was scouting out places to return to, as well as other places in the area that I knew would be worth stopping at, like the Calvin Coolidge State Historic site, with East Mountain in the background, above.


The pano above was taken at the Green Mountain Sugar House on Route 100, alongside the lower part of Lake Rescue. That's probably Mount Gilead, but I wouldn't swear to it.

And this is only because who could resist an infrared image of fall foliage?