Last Updated: May 2026
St. Johnsbury sits at the southern gateway to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, a small city with an outsized cultural legacy — the Fairbanks Museum, the Athenaeum art gallery, and some of the best cheddar cheese in America all within a few blocks of each other. Our days here ranged from industrial curiosity (watching granite get quarried and turned into bowling balls) to genuine emotion (a hilltop chapel built in memory of a beloved dog), and from the verdant Vermont countryside to the dramatic gorge carved into the granite of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
Cabot Creamery Tour
Cabot Creamery has been a Vermont institution since 1919, a farmer-owned cooperative that produces some of the most decorated cheddar in the country. The Cabot Visitors Center in Cabot village offers free tours and, more importantly, generous samples. We watched the cheesemaking process through viewing windows, learned about the cooperative model that sustains Vermont’s dairy farms, and spent way too much time in the sample room before finally buying a wedge of their three-year sharp cheddar. It’s the real thing.
Moose River Campground
We stayed at Moose River Campground in St. Johnsbury — a comfortable, well-shaded site right on the water. One unwelcome feature of early June in the Northeast Kingdom: the black flies. Jake bore the brunt of it, earning a collection of bites on his belly that he found deeply undignified. Vermont in late spring is spectacular, but come prepared if you’re sensitive to bugs.
Joe’s Pond & Covered Bridges
Joe’s Pond in West Danville takes its name from Indian Joe — an Abenaki man who lived from 1745 to 1819 and was so well respected in the region that early settlers named the pond in his honor. A historic marker near the covered bridge tells his story, a small but meaningful reminder that Vermont’s history runs deeper than sugar maples and cheddar cheese.
Just down the road, the Greenbanks Hollow Covered Bridge is a quiet gem — a single-span Town lattice truss bridge set in a deeply shaded hollow that feels completely removed from the modern world.
Visiting Bob & Jeannette in Bradford
We made a stop in Bradford to visit old friends Bob and Jeannette — the kind of visit that reminds you one of the great privileges of full-time travel is the ability to detour for people you care about.
Rock of Ages Granite Quarry
The Rock of Ages quarry in Barre is the largest dimension granite quarry in the world — a 500-foot-deep pit carved entirely by human hands over more than a century. The free visitor center explains the geological and industrial history, but the quarry tour is worth paying for: you ride a trolley to the edge of the pit and look straight down at workers drilling and blasting hundreds of feet below. It’s legitimately awe-inspiring. The manufacturing facility adjacent to the quarry is where raw granite slabs become everything from kitchen countertops to headstones — and, somewhat unexpectedly, bowling balls.
Dog Mountain & St. Hubert’s Chapel
Dog Mountain is one of the most emotionally affecting places we visited in all of Vermont. The late artist and author Stephen Huneck built a small chapel on the hill behind his studio — St. Hubert’s Chapel, dedicated to all dogs and the people who love them. Visitors leave notes and photos of their pets on the walls; the interior is covered in them, stretching back decades. Huneck lost his health, his studio, and eventually his life, but the chapel he built endures as a place of genuine beauty and quiet grief. We walked in half-expecting kitsch and left genuinely moved.
Flume Gorge, New Hampshire
From St. Johnsbury we made a day trip east into New Hampshire’s White Mountains to hike the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. The Flume is a natural chasm carved into the granite bedrock of Mount Liberty — 800 feet long, 12 to 20 feet wide, with walls rising 70 to 90 feet on either side. Wooden boardwalks and covered bridges guide you through the gorge, past waterfalls, past enormous mossy boulders, and through explosions of spring wildflowers growing in every crack and crevice. On a warm June day, with everything green and the water rushing, it’s spectacular.
Vermont Driving Scenery
Between stops, the Northeast Kingdom just kept delivering. Every back road seemed to open onto another perfect Vermont scene — weathered barns, wildflower meadows, birch forests, and views of the Green Mountains rolling away to the horizon.
Visitor Information
Cabot Creamery
Cabot Creamery Visitors Center is at 2878 Main St, Cabot, VT. Factory tours and tastings are free; check cabotcheese.coop for seasonal hours.
Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages is at 560 Graniteville Rd, Barre, VT. The visitor center is free; quarry tours run seasonally and require a fee. Visit rockofages.com for tour schedules.
Dog Mountain
Dog Mountain is at 143 Parks Rd, St. Johnsbury, VT. The chapel and grounds are free and open year-round. Dogs welcome off-leash. Visit dogmt.com for gallery hours.
Flume Gorge
Flume Gorge is in Franconia Notch State Park, off I-93 Exit 34A, Lincoln, NH. Admission fee applies; the loop trail is approximately 2 miles. Open mid-May through late October.
Moose River Campground
Moose River Campground is at 1337 US-2, St. Johnsbury, VT. Full hookups and water/electric sites available.
Practical Tips
Dog Mountain with pets: Dogs are welcome everywhere on the grounds, off-leash. The chapel welcomes all, dogs included. Bring a note or photo of a dog you’ve loved — the tradition of leaving tributes on the walls is ongoing and genuinely moving.
Flume Gorge timing: Go early on summer weekends to beat tour bus crowds. The gorge trail is partially shaded and cool even on hot days — bring a light layer. The boardwalks can be slippery after rain.
Black flies: Late May through mid-June is black fly season throughout the Northeast Kingdom. Bug spray with DEET is essential, and long sleeves help. The flies disappear almost entirely by late June.
Cabot tour tip: The best cheese samples are in the small side room beyond the main counter — don’t leave without trying the horseradish cheddar.
