We had plans to go camping Mother’s Day weekend, but ended up canceling them and stayed home instead. By the end of May, we were eager to go camping again as we’re not as able to camp in June due to hay season. Hay season began on May 23  for us this year. We finished up baling and stacking on Friday night, and we were able to leave Saturday morning to go camping.

We decided to check another state of our list and headed to Vermont! We left early Saturday morning and were all set up at Woodford State Park by 10:30 am. The campsite was nice (especially since we didn’t have a neighbor on our outdoor area side) but it was SO BUGGY.

The boys took over my hammock and Jackson was thrilled when a moth (he thought it was a butterfly) landed on his face.

We decided not to waste any time and got going shortly after we set up. First up, we took a drive over to check out the campground’s beach and Adam’s Resevoir.

After checking out the resevoir for a bit, we headed back to the camper for lunch. After lunch, we headed to Bennington to check out one of Vermont’s State Historic sites. The Bennington Battle Monument was completed in 1891 to commemorate the Battle of Bennington which is considered to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War in 1777. At 306 feet tall, it is the tallest monument in Vermont. The boys signed the guest book and we took the elevator up to the obervatory level (the stairs are closed), which shows panoramic views of the rolling hills and valleys of Vermont, Massachussets, and New York.

There were also additonal (smaller) monuments on the property. We took a break at Colonel Seth Warner’s momument. He was commander of the Green Mountain Boys who helped defeat the British forces.

After touring the monument, we decided to walk around Bennington a bit. Bennington’s Mayfest Craft Festival was happening, so we checked out a few vendors and walked in a few antique stores. We found a frozen yogurt place and had dessert before dinner! We also found this amazing colorful statue. My rainbow loving boys were impressed.

We got back to the campsite, started a fire (because BUGS!) and the boys played with some of their toys.

We had plans to go for a hike on Sunday, but we woke up to gloomy weather. We did some quick research to figure out what else we could do and discovered there were a few covered bridges in the area, so we decided to go on our own covered bridge tour!

First up was the Silk Road Covered Bridge in Bennington. It was built in 1840 to carry Silk Road across the Walloomsac River between downtown Bennington and the village of North Bennington.

Next up was the Paper Mill Village Bridge. This wooden covered bridge was built in 1889 to carry Murphy Road across the Walloomsac River northwest of Bennington.

Later in the day, Chris’ brother texted us this picture…

Chris  and Mike visitied the Paper Mill Village Bridge during a motorcycle trip in 2001. Chris didn’t even remember he’d been here before!

The last covered bridge on our tour was the Henry Bridge. This covered bridge was originally constructed around 1840 and completely rebuilt in 1989. The Henry Bridge carries River Road over the Walloomsac River near Bennington, Vermont.

After our covered bridge tour, we went back to the camper for lunch and try to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. We really wanted to hike in the Green Mountain National Forest since we were here, so we decided to go for it despite the rainy weather. After lunch, we loaded up the kids and headed to Walmart to purchase some ponchos to wear on our hike.

We hiked the Haystack Mountain Trail to Haystack Summit, which is a 4 mile out and back trail with beautiful wildflowers and a view at the top… We were unable to see a view due to the weather, but we all did it with a mild amount of complaining.

We are all happy to get back to the truck and warm up! We went back to the camper and spent the rest of the evening inside as it was still raining. Chris made s’mores and the boys ate them inside!

On Monday morning, we rented a canoe from the campground store. We grabbed our life jackets and headed out to canoe on Adams Resevoir. This was the boys first time in a canoe. We didn’t tip over and no one fell out, so we called it a successful family first!

After canoeing, we packed up the campsite and said goodbye to Woodford State Park and headed home. The boys were thrilled when we stopped for a quick lunch at McDonalds (as was I because I didn’t have to make it or clean up after ;)!) which had one of those giant indoor playgrounds.