Hiking Killington Peak
White Mountains, NH to Killington, VT | Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury, VT | Hiking & Camping at Killington Peak, VT | July 2024
The day after Curtis’ big 15 mile hike, he was ready to take a rest from hiking, so we spent most of the morning relaxing and working at our campsite. We would have been content to just stay here and take Charlotte for walks through the campground and on the forest road, but once again our van battery was getting low, so we needed to either run the van or go find some sun for our solar panels. While looking at nearby places on Google Maps, I saw a gas station that had a deli and other foods and was very highly rated, so we decided to go for a little drive and treat ourselves for lunch. The whole idea really came about when I was remembering the whoopie pies that a couple had shared with us in Maine and I saw that there were whoopie pies here, but unfortunately they were all sold out for the weekend so we had to settle for giant cookies. Anyway, we made the short drive over to Yaya’s Market and Deli near the US-3 & US-302 junction, then took our sandwiches across the street to a rest area for a little picnic. Here we all got some of the sunshine we had been craving, and took a little walk with Charlotte on the sidewalk to nowhere in particular. Once we had eaten, walked, and the battery was back above 90%, we returned to our campsite in the woods for one more night.
The next morning, it was time to end our week long stay in the White Mountains and continue our drive South. We had a few days before we had planned to visit Curtis’ brother Joel in Massachusetts. Since everything in New England is relatively close, we were still only driving a couple hours a day and finding new hikes or attractions to fill our days. Today we planned to drive into Vermont and find a new spot to camp for a couple nights.
As we entered Vermont, we started to notice some of the flood and storm damage that had come with Tropical Storm Beryl. The main highways were clear and safe, but some of the side roads were washed out, and some houses had ruined belongings thrown out in their yards. It was sad to see, knowing they had also dealt with severe flooding last year.
We made our way to our first stop of the day, an attraction that we’ve known about for a long time but never made time to visit: the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury! We weren’t even that far away last year when we were in Vermont for several weeks waiting out Charlotte’s recovery, and Lord knows coming here and indulging in ice cream would have surely cheered us up. Oh well, today was a hot and sunny day, perfect for eating ice cream (which we can’t really keep in our van freezer). Of course that meant the area was super busy with other visitors, but it was still worth stopping for an hour. We got our ice cream, took some pictures, and walked through the Flavor Graveyard.
After that, we began driving South down VT-100. We had saved a few waterfall hikes along the way, but being a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the trailheads were overly crowded with cars, so we skipped them for today. Instead, we drove down to where we hoped to be able to both hike and camp for the evening. While looking through camping options on iOverlander, I came across something that was a bit different than what we usually went for, but seemed like it would check all our boxes. It was located in the Killington Resort ski village area, where there were several large gravel lots that allow you to camp for free overnight during the summer. There was plenty of room even on a busy weekend, no trees blocking our solar panels, cell service so we could work, and Killington Peak meets Curtis’ prominence requirement for his hiking goal. We arrived and found a place to park that wasn’t too close to anyone else, then set up the van. There were a variety of other rigs also camping here, from vans to RVs and some of the lots even had tent pads, with lots of people coming here to take advantage of the mountain bike trails. We found it funny that most of the others camping here were all from Quebec. Once we were all settled in, Curtis set off to go for his hike.
Curtis: Killington is a big peak and a big ski resort. And since it isn’t public land, I figured I’d do my due diligence and stop at the main lift to make sure I could actually hike. The guys at the front desk told me that I was absolutely allowed to hike. I also thought it would be cool to get a sticker for our growing sticker wall, but was blown away by the sticker price (`$12 for a 1″x1″ sticker!). The guys laughed and said that hiking is about the *only* free thing you can do…that and camping.
I left the main lift, which had a steady stream of mountain bikers and found a trail that meandered through the different ski runs and ski lifts. The hiking was steep, but definitely not as steep as going straight up the main lift like how some hike the peak. And, unlike most every other peak in the Appalachians which are tree locked until the peak (and even then sometimes the summits are blocked by trees), the ski runs make for great tree breaks and offer endless views. I stopped frequently for the views looking North along the spine of the Green Mountains.
Despite the number of mountain bikers I had seen at the bottom, I didn’t see many coming down. Though I think they deliberately keep the hiking and biking trails separated. My route had me coming up from the Southeast and then cutting under the main lift before following a set of stairs and boardwalks (called the catwalk) to the lodge at the top of the main lift. From the lodge, the trail goes up the last little bit to the true summit. There were a lot more people at the summit than I had seen anywhere else, but they all had paid to ride up. You can also easily reach the peak from the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail, but I didn’t see anyone that met that description.
Between the views from the summit and the views all the way up, Killington easily became one of the best peaks I’ve done this year, and the most prominent for the year (so far). After taking some pictures, I started down. It was getting late and I seriously questioned when the lift would shut down for the night. As I walked by the lift, I didn’t see anyone and briefly considered taking the easy way down, but my law-abiding-citizen brain won out and I walked down.
I followed a shorter route down making a large loop. You can see my AllTrails recording here.
Jess: After dinner, walking Charlotte one more time and putting her to bed, Curtis and I went for a little sunset walk to one of the closer viewpoints on the trail — we couldn’t see the sunset since it was East-facing, but still enjoyed watching the skies change color and seeing the mountains in the distance. We slept well, then decided the next morning that we liked this spot enough to stay another day. We worked, relaxed in the sun and the shade cast by the van, and went for shorter walks up and down the road with Charlotte. And the van batteries stayed nearly fully charged all day! This turned out to be a great spot to stay, and we’d even consider coming back and using it as a base for future Vermont travels.
