Three Days at von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort and Around Stowe
Spring doesn't arrive in Stowe all at once.
There can still be snow high on the mountains while the valleys are beginning to turn green. Waterfalls run stronger with snowmelt. Maple sap starts moving through the trees. Trails gradually emerge from winter, and every week seems to reveal another sign that Vermont is changing seasons.
If you're looking for packed calendars and peak-season crowds, there are better times to visit. But if you'd like a few days when Stowe feels a little less hurried, spring has a lot going for it.
And at von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort, one of Vermont's sweetest spring traditions is happening right outside the Lodge.
Once you've checked in, don't worry about getting back in the car.
Spring is a transition season, so exactly what you'll find depends on when you visit. Early in the season, winter may still be hanging on. Come later and the forests, pastures and gardens will have begun waking up.
That's part of the experience.
Check current trail conditions before heading out, particularly during Vermont's famously muddy spring weeks.
If this is your first visit, consider the von Trapp History Tour.
The story that brought the family from Austria to this mountainside is much more interesting than the Hollywood version alone, and understanding it gives context to much of what you'll encounter during the rest of your stay.
The Lodge. The land. The family cemetery. The Austrian influences. Even the outdoor traditions that became part of the resort.
Afterward, you'll know a little more about where you are. That's a good way to begin.
Every spring, the resort taps its sugar bush with approximately 2,000 taps.
Maple sugaring depends on a particular combination of weather: warmer days followed by nights below freezing. When those conditions arrive, the sap begins to run.
Rather than simply buying a bottle of Vermont maple syrup, you can go see where ours comes from.
The Maple Sugar Tour begins with a casual one-mile hike through the property to the sugarhouse.
At the sugarhouse, you'll learn how sap travels from the trees, how tubing and traditional buckets are used, and how reverse osmosis helps reduce the amount of wood needed to turn that sap into syrup.
And yes.
There's a maple treat involved.
If you're fortunate enough to visit while the sap is actually flowing, you'll be seeing the process during the few weeks each year when Vermont's maple season really comes alive.
After the sugarhouse, let the activity schedule decide what comes next. Spring decides the schedule around here more than we do.
As conditions allow, guided walks explore the resort's sustainably managed forest and the plants appearing along the trails and pastures. Or visit the farm and meet the Scottish Highland herd.
As the season progresses, mountain biking, disc golf, carriage rides and other warm-weather activities may join the list too.
Check what's available when you arrive and take advantage of what the season gives you.
Not because you've run out of things to do here. Because spring gives you some particularly good reasons to explore the rest of Stowe.
Snowmelt and spring rain bring Vermont's streams and waterfalls back to life. That makes Moss Glen Falls an especially fitting spring destination.
Conditions matter, of course, and wet ground deserves appropriate footwear and a little common sense. But seeing a Vermont waterfall with spring water moving through it is a very different experience from visiting later in the year.
This is one season when a little rain yesterday may be good news today.
Spring's quieter pace works particularly well here.
Browse the shops and galleries. Find somewhere for lunch. Have another cup of coffee.
You don't need an event or festival to justify wandering around town for an afternoon.
That's part of the appeal.
If the weather cooperates, walk or bike part of the Stowe Recreation Path.
The paved path runs 5.3 miles from Stowe Village along the Little River toward a covered bridge. It's mostly level, and you can enter or leave it at several points, so there's no reason to treat the full distance as an assignment.
In spring, it's simply a nice way to see another side of Stowe as the valley turns green again.
Then head back up the mountain.
It might. Fortunately, rain doesn't mean you've lost a day.
Take a von Trapp Brewery Tour and learn why Johannes von Trapp decided to begin brewing Austrian-style lagers here.
Depending on the activity calendar, you may find a baking or craft class, yoga, rock climbing, a guided beer tasting or wine tasting.
Schedule a massage and stop pretending every vacation day needs an accomplishment attached to it.
Then find your way to the Bierhall.
Rain sounds considerably less problematic with a lager in front of you.
Winter doesn't disappear because the calendar says March.
Depending on the year and conditions, skiing may still be part of the Stowe experience while maple season is beginning farther down the mountain.
You might see snow in the morning and hear running water in the afternoon. You might need a winter jacket one day and considerably less of it the next.
Don't come expecting spring to behave itself.
Come prepared for a little of everything.
It's its own season.
This is when maple sap runs through the resort's sugar bush. When snowmelt feeds the waterfalls. When the woods begin changing almost daily. When Stowe Village is a little easier to wander.
And when you can spend a few days watching the Green Mountains work their way from one season into another.
Come see Vermont while it's changing. There's a lot happening between winter and summer.
