Green Mountain Country Turns Colors

You'll cross a one-lane covered bridge and see glorious multicolored views of the Green Mountains set back against open farmland. Keep an eye out for your fellow, and potentially slower-moving, leaf peepers.

If you need a quick stop along the way, check out the olde-towne style Warren Store, which sells gourmet snacks, clothes, jewelry, coffee, wine and more.

Just past the Warren Store, rejoin Route 100, where you will continue south. Route 100 itself takes you along the Mad River, and as you head south of Warren, the road becomes increasingly winding, curling up into the Granville Gulf, later passing the Moss Glen Falls on your right.

Eventually, turn onto Route 125 west, lined with maple, birch, spruce and fir, as you head toward Middlebury, and climb the Middlebury Gap up into the Green Mountain National Forest. Your last turn will be a right onto Route 7 north, which will bring you into town.

If you haven't had enough, and want to extend your drive about 30 miles before nesting for the evening in Middlebury, you can continue west on 125 to Lake Champlain and the Chimney Point State Historic Site, where you can dive into the story of the Native American, French colonial and early American cultures that settled in the area. Turn onto Route 17 and loop back to the east, to Route 7, where you'll then drive south to Middlebury.

Upon your arrival, walk the campus of Middlebury College, a New England Small College Athletic Conference school nestled between the Green Mountains and New York's Adirondacks, in the Champlain Valley. The colors in Middlebury will be less developed than up in Montpelier, but budding colors accent the historic granite, marble and limestone buildings that dot the campus. Check out Old Stone Row, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.