Camel's Hump Mountain

For our big day of hiking we decided to hike up Camel's Hump Mountain just south of Waterbury, VT. It is one of three mountains in the Green Mountains that is high enough to have alpine vegetation. We had been debating where we wanted to go hiking and had picked up a few maps of some other trails on other mountains, but then Dan happened to start talking to some guy at Green Mountain Coffee. He recommended taking the Camel's Hump trail and was pretty sure even the little kids could do it if we didn't rush them since he had taken his 5-year-old son/grandson (can't remember which) on it without any problems. He got out a couple maps and showed us how to get there and how the trail went. If he hadn't told us how to get there we never would have found it. The trailhead is basically at the end of a dirt road. The trail was 3.4 miles one way and had an elevation gain of 2400 feet.

The day we picked to go hiking turned out to be one of the best days weather-wise. Some of the previous days had been a little rainy and the day after we hiked it rained all day. This day the weather was perfect--the high was in the 70s and there were very few clouds.

Note the rocky terrain. As the guy at the Green Mountain Club said, hiking in Vermont is a lot of rocks and roots.


Natalie did a great job hiking. We weren't sure how she would do since this was really her first long hike all by herself. But she did a great job!! She got pretty tired the last hour and fell a few times so Dan or I carried her off and on for about the last mile. Darin also did really well. On the way up he kept getting way ahead of us. He would make friends with hikers that were passing us and would talk their ears off. It was pretty cute. After the hike while we were at Green Mountain Coffee (did I mention they have the best iced coffee?), one of the guys that Darin chatted with for awhile hollered at him by name and asked him if he had hiked the whole way. By that point Darin was pretty tired and was pretty much a walking zombie so I told the other guy that Darin was quite a trooper.




Sometimes the trail made us go up these huge boulders. Here you can see the blue marking on the boulder to let us know that yes, that is where we need to go.



We finally made it to the top!!! The views were amazing and we could see for miles. I had packed a lunch so we stopped to rest at the top and eat. Plus we didn't want to eat anywhere on the trail because the mosquitoes were horrible!!! They weren't so bad at the top--there were still a few and also a few bees but definitely better than on the trail.




A bit windy and definitely cooler at the top.


On the descent.


After we were done hiking we drove to Moss Glen Falls just north of Stowe. We were all pretty tired and were really hoping that the trail to the falls was very, very short. It was. Although the falls look tiny in the picture, they are actually 125 feet.


After the falls we went back to the condo and relaxed. We were all so tired. During his nightly prayers Darin prayed, "Dear God, Thank you that we went on a six-hour hike today and not a seven-hour hike because otherwise my feet would be really, really sore."