An easy Hairpin turn on Smugglers Notch

by Jeff Folger

Title

An easy Hairpin turn on Smugglers Notch

Artist

Jeff Folger

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Photograph - Art Creations

Description

Traveling up to Stowe Vermont requires that you also have to take a ride through Smuggler's Notch. This is not for the faint of heart either. This wideangle view is but one of the turns you'll encounter. Most of them snake their way through gigantic boulders. This actually one of the wider turns you will find and it has no boulders! Just as New Hampshire will test your nerves on the Mount Washington auto road, Smuggler's Notch on a busy saturday during it's busiest season (Early October) will also test your nerves. The road not only winds its way in lazy turns up the mountain road but it also sneaks in some switchbacks around boulders that you can't see around. So you actually have to stop and honk you horn to let the oncoming car know that you are sticking your nose out into their lane of traffic in order to get around the behemoths that some call boulders. To call them boulders is a misnomer. These are merely the toes of Mount Mansfield sticking up through the earth. We can also say that the toes of a mountain are not dainty! In that they can be as big as a house. You can drive the road but I found that the best way to photograph Smuggler's Notch is via foot. I went up to the hikers parking lot and walked back down. I was there at dawn and the traffic was light but by the time I left there was one or more cars every minute. There are a few trails that you can take to avoid the road but remember this! There are no sidewalks of any kind and you are better off going around the backside of the boulders or even over them becasue there is no safe way for you and or your kids to share the road with the cars coming down. I can't stress this enough, No room to walk if the road is busy!

Uploaded

June 3rd, 2019

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