Vermont State Parks

  First Day Hikers stand in front of Butler Lodge in 2023. Start the new year on the right foot with a hike in the great outdoors. On January 1, 2024, everyone is once again invited to join a free, guided, family-friendly hike taking place at many state parks, state forests, and other public lands across Vermont. Hikes are led by professional guides and outdoor educators eager to share their knowledge and love of Vermont’s outdoors. Don’t need a guide? No matter where you live in Vermont, a state park or state forest is always close by, and you can still get outside to enjoy it. State Park entry is free on New Year’s Day (and all winter long). You’ll discover a whole new world in winter.  First Day Hikers warm up at the CCC shelter at Owl's Head. Please pre-register by contacting hike leaders ahead of time. On hike day dress for the weather and bring snowshoes if the snow is deep, and micro-spikes or traction aids in case of ice. Please also bring beverages and snacks. In the ...

A porcupine scuttling through the Vermont woods. I’ve been seeing lots of porcupines lately while wandering in the woods, watching the movement of white- tailed deer and the changing of seasons here in Vermont. Evening visits to Gifford Woods State Park and Allis State Park are overlapping with porcupine activity more and more. Porcupines don’t vanish out of view quickly like coyotes or other nocturnal animals. I frequently see them because they are not in a hurry to get away from me; they waddle along very slowly. Their defense is not speed or agility, but the prickly quills garnishing their backsides. If you have experienced a curious dog and a close porcupine encounter, you already know why I sweep the trail ahead of me carefully with a bright headlamp during evening walks in porcupine territory. I don’t want to find out how it feels to take a shin full of barbed porcupine quills. There is one porcupine I have been seeing regularly on my favorite walking loop. The very first encou...

Welcome sign to Knight Island State Park. The winter of 2019 in Vermont was one of the most brutal winters in recent history. We experienced everything, from high accumulating snow storms with high winds to freezing rain. The snow storms were reminiscent of my childhood. I can remember snow being piled half way up telephone poles. From December to April, I am confined to my plow truck. By the end of February I want to trade in my childhood enthusiasm of winter for some primal camping. It seems that this phenomenon happens to me every year at around this time. I have camped over night on Burton Island, and day camped at Knight Island, not to mention other winter excursions. I like to test the limits of my body and skills to survive. Doing this in the winter, on an island seems to magnify the experience. The call to camp on Knight Island was getting louder with every snow storm. The short term forecast provided a break, but it  wasn’t quite the break I was looking for. Betwe...