Visiting Smugglers’ Notch Resort in the fall feels like stepping into a living postcard. The mountains are matted in layers of red, yellow, and orange. The mornings have you reaching for a sweatshirt and a hot cup of coffee, while the afternoons beg you to drop a layer and invoke cravings for a maple creemee. Roads wind beneath canopies of color, while farms, fields, and woods encompass the landscape, every view looks ready to be printed and mailed. This is foliage at its best!
That’s how the days unfold at Smuggs: one postcard after another. Each stop feels like its own snapshot, the kind of picture you can imagine on glossy card stock with a quick note scrawled across the back. A line that says wish you were here or thinking of you, paired with an image that tells the rest of the story. Here’s a glimpse of what a postcard day might look like.
You hop in your car and drive three and a half miles north to Pratt Road, a dirt road that bends between wooded stretches and open fields. Trees meet overhead to veil the way, while sunlight filters down in shifting patterns. Leaves, well past their prime, fall from the trees and dance to the tune of the wind. You might see a neighbor out for a walk, kids swinging in a tire, or some deer parading across the road. Then a view opens wide across a hay field revealing ski trails that will soon be coated in white. It’s quiet, local, and unhurried, a perfect start to the day.
After a picturesque mile and a half, you’ll find Stony Grove, a family orchard where the rows of trees stretch across the rolling property, each one heavy with apples. You wander through with a bag in hand, dew covered grass wetting your Blundstones, that first bite of apple is crisp and sweet. At the barn, the farm stand is stocked with baskets of apples, shelves of jams, maple syrups, jars of pickled vegetables, and trays of baked goods warm with cinnamon. It feels like the kind of stop you hope to stumble on when you come to Vermont, genuine and welcoming.
After getting your fill of fresh made apple beignets, if that’s possible, continue your postcard day at Golden Dog Farm, where the fields come alive with motion. Golden retrievers zoom through the grass, ears flying, tails wagging, and before long you’ll find yourself in the middle of the play, laughing as one nudges your hand and another chases after a ball. If the dogs seemingly smiling furry faces weren’t enough, the Golden Dog property boasts some of the best views locally, and they produce their own maple syrup. This experience is uniquely Vermont, a memory that, like the fur, will stick with you long after you leave.
Each postcard stands on its own, the canopy of Pratt Road, the rows of apples at Stony Grove, the dogs at Golden Dog Farm. Together, they create a day that feels both complete and personal, a collection of moments that belong as much to you as they do to the place.
All across Vermont, fall delivers its colors and flavors, but at Smugglers’ Notch Resort you are right at the crossroads of it all. From here, the experiences begin as soon as you walk out your door, mountains proudly wearing their seasonal colors, quiet tree-lined dirt roads, and local businesses abounding with their season’s best. The postcards are waiting, but it is up to you to dig them up, to harvest them, to make them your own. Some come with dew on your boots and apples in your bag, others with blonde fur on your jeans and wagging tails drumming your leg. Together they create not just a picture of fall in Vermont, but your own set of memories written on the backs of postcards that always say the same thing: wish you were here.
Annual Northeast Street Rod Nationals
September 12, 8:00 am – September 13, 4:00 pm
1,500 street rods, customs, muscle cars, and street machines will be on hand at the Champlain Valley Exposition this fall as the National Street Rod Association® presents its Annual Northeast Street Rod Nationals. Almost all of the Champlain Valley Exposition, as well as many of the buildings, will be utilized for the event, which will house a large number of manufacturer and dealer displays and other attractions.
SPECTATOR ADMISSION:
$20 – 13 & older
$6 – Ages 6-12
FREE – CHILDREN 5 & UNDER WHEN ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT
$45 per family – 2 ADULTS & 3 CHILDREN (12 & under)
A special discounted $18 admission is available for military personnel with proper military identification, NSRA members with their current membership card, or anyone 60 years of age and older. One discounted admission per person. Discount Tickets are available at O’Reilly Auto Parts.
🥏 2025 Green Mountain Championship at Smugglers’ Notch Resort
Join us this fall for a Disc Golf Pro Tour Playoff Event! Spectator tickets are available now—kids 10 & under are free with a ticketed adult.
🏨 Discounted lodging for GMC attendees is available through our Group Vacations team. Call 1-800-521-0536 or email [email protected] and mention the disc golf tournament.
🎟️ Please arrive no earlier than 7:30 am.
📍 Located at Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, VT
📸 No cameras, flash photography, or live streaming allowed.
🧍 Spectators must wear credentials, stay in viewing areas, and respect all event staff, players, and fellow guests.
🚫 No pets or outside alcohol. Food and beverages available on-site.
📅 Rain or shine – no weather refunds. Cancellation policies apply.
👉 For complete event details, rules, caddiebooks, maps, highlights, and policies, visit:
www.dgpt.com/green-mountain-championship/
Fiddlehead’s FallFest – Friday, September 19 & Saturday, September 20
Doors Open: 6:00 pm
Opening Bands: TBD – 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Friday Headliner is Vermont based singer and songwriter Kat Wright 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday Headliner: we’re excited to welcome back art-pop and indie-rock band from Brooklyn, NY – Rubblebucket!
Fiddlehead Beer on Draft
- Enjoy a selection of Fiddlehead Brews on draft throughout FallFest
Local Food Carts
- Selections from several local purveyors of delicious eats
Other Details
- PARKING: Please park in the main parking lot in Smuggs Village. Follow parking attendants.
- REFUND POLICY: No refunds. Event is rain or shine.
- Children 12 & under are admitted free of charge with a paid adult accompanying them.
📲 Text Smuggs to 855-421-2279 for real-time alerts about weather updates, schedule changes, and more!
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