Frost’s Vermont
Robert Frost spent 23 summers at a farm above Ripton, and this corner of Addison County is steeped in his legacy. The landscape of birches, stone walls and snowy woods that fills his poems is exactly the country you drive through on the Middlebury Gap.
The Robert Frost Trail
Off Route 125, the easy Robert Frost Interpretive Trail loops through meadow and woodland, with his poems posted along the way — a gentle, moving walk, especially in fall. The nearby Homer Noble Farm was his summer home.
Bread Loaf & the Gap
Higher up, Middlebury College’s yellow-clapboard Bread Loaf campus hosts the famous Bread Loaf Writers' Conference each summer. Route 125 crests the Middlebury Gap through the Green Mountain National Forest, with Texas Falls — a pretty roadside gorge — just over the top.
When to go
The Gap is a spectacular fall-foliage drive, and the Frost Trail is lovely year-round; combine them with a Middlebury day for a perfect literary-and-leaf outing.
Good to know
Where did Robert Frost live in Vermont?+
At the Homer Noble Farm above Ripton, where he spent 23 summers; the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail is nearby off Route 125.
What is Bread Loaf?+
Middlebury College’s mountain campus above Ripton, home to the historic Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
Is the Middlebury Gap scenic?+
Very — Route 125 over the Green Mountains is a gorgeous foliage drive, with Texas Falls just over the pass.