Dummerston Covered Bridge and Exploring Vermont

Today’s blog article is all about how choices affect our explorations in Vermont (really anywhere) and finding ourselves at Vermont’s Dummerston covered bridge.

Dummerston covered bridge over the west river — Dummerston covered bridge over the West river

Let’s move on to…

Any! Excuse to explore…

I love any excuse I can get to explore roads that are seldom traveled. And, I mean any excuse… Back in my early years of looking for fall colors, I was usually on the road by myself. I would drive till I found something but it was usually just luck. Lucky for me I found Lisa…

When Lisa was with me she would say, “That road looks interesting” and on several occasions, I would turn the wheel hard (she did not appreciate that) and jump on the road that she indicated. You see I had learned early on that she had good instincts and I trusted them.

What I also learned was that exploring with someone was much more fun and if they can keep an eye open for possible scenic opportunities and then we are more productive.

People may worry about where the road is taking them and just turning onto a dirt road fills them with dread.

To be honest most farm roads are pretty smooth. What you have to be watchful of are your surroundings. A warning sign is If your GPS says you are on a road but the trees are starting to brush the sides of the car. This is a good time to re-evaluate your route.

Things to look out for…

If the road you’re on is a solid line in the GPS but it’s a dashed red line in the Gazetteer then it may be time to do a gut check (meaning do you feel comfortable on what this road looks like). When I was younger I took my sedan in some places where I had to back out. But never had to call a tow truck…!

But when you see me mention Granby Road or Darling Road by name then you can be sure that these roads are good for travel by all vehicles. BUT! if you get adventurous and take a turnoff from that road, then be aware that if I didn’t mention it, maybe I didn’t drive it.

Finding the Dummerston Covered Bridge

One winter, Lisa and I were making our way across route nine from New Hampshire to Vermont, and just after we crossed the Connecticut River we came into Brattleboro and we saw signs for the town of Dummerston Vermont.

I remembered I’d never photographed the Dummerston-covered bridge… But I didn’t know where it was so I jumped off on a secondary road heading for Dummerston.

But little did I know if I had merely stayed on route 30 I would’ve driven right by the Dummerston-covered bridge. But then I wouldn’t be exploring.

Many times you may hear me mention that the gazetteers are better at locating something but with today’s phones (and cars) you should be able to find the Dummerston covered bridge and get directions. The exception might be in the rural areas where cell service is spotty. I spent 2.5 days in western Massachusetts in Oct 2021 and I only had cell service in the bigger towns. It’s hard to locate a place to get breakfast when you have no internet!!! It does happen, be warned!

Dummerston Covered Bridge!

We followed some backroads and the signs for the city of Dummerston. Along this route, Lisa and I found several sugar shacks and barns that were definitely worth our time to stop and photograph at a later time.

We were driving down a stretch of road lined with Maple trees (I knew they were maples because they already had sap buckets on them) and along this stretch, up on a hill in the middle of a snowy field, there was a gentleman sitting in a chair. There were no buildings around him and we had to assume he was just sitting there enjoying the sunshine, so we waved and continued on our journey.

You will note I say “backroads” and “stretch of road” but no names. Because this was around January 2006 and my GPS at this time was VERY basic and I didn’t write down the roads that we were on. But I would say if you traveled over Black Mountain Road out of Brattleboro which connects with East-West Road and that will bring you to the Dummerston Covered Bridge.

winter time at the dummerston covered bridge

We eventually arrived at the Dummerston Covered Bridge from the backside and I went down the bank to the water’s edge and photographed it from there and then I drove through the covered bridge to the other side and photographed it from there.

Stick season or winter is not my favorite time to photograph much of anything so I tend to look for red covered bridges in winter but I won’t turn down a covered bridge if it isn’t.

One thing to keep in mind is that many covered bridges out there have two or even three names by which a covered bridge is known-by. This is covered bridge is one where there are two Dummerston Covered Bridges. If you are interested in the “other” Dummerston Covered Bridge in Massachusetts, read about it here.

Nearby Attractions

We pulled through the covered bridge and into a parking lot on the other side. We had found Jeff’s Antiques next to the bridge and since my name is Jeff I went in to see how MY antique business was doing. 🙂

Jeff had many interesting pieces of art and furniture in there and his prices were very reasonable. Lisa even bought a couple of antique jelly bean boxes to do something with at a later time.

We were heading for Northern Vermont and family so we continued up Route 30 until we found ourselves in Newfane Vermont and the Newfane Country Store… I have a short blurb on Newfane in this article.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

Visit my Amazon affiliate store for items that Lisa and I have curated for you. These items are either New England-made or things we think will make your fall foliage trip more successful.