Vermont's Best Kept Secret

Winhall Brook Campground. In September 2010, we were innocently driving back from an appointment to possibly sell soap to Inn in at the base of Stratton Mountain. The end result of that meeting was that the end keeper wanted us to sell large amounts of our product to them at cost with the idea that the people that used it at the end with them pay retail for it on the way home. Obviously a very stupid idea. But the trip wasn't without benefit.

As we were coming up route 100 North we noticed a very plain brown sign, a very government style sign with white letters that said "camping area" in the area of South Londonderry Vermont.. We follow the signs. What we found out there was Winhall Brook National Park. It went on to become what I would call, Vermont's best kept secret. it was a little piece of paradise in a valley. The sites were roomy and inexpensive. Everything was perfect. There were a couple of playgrounds and even one of those wooden train sets to play on. Our kids, who  who were not crazy about the ride were now very happy and jumped out of the car and ran and played on everything.

Our choices in campgrounds would be different than the majority. Some people think a campground with arcade games, a pool, rec hall and a stupid firetruck is where it is at. But, those hideous insults to camping WE generally refer to as "cramp-grounds". This because you would have more room parking in a Walmart parking lot. And amenities?  I have always noticed that the more amenities a campground has, the more it generally sucks. Those are the places that some old drunken idiot is the first one to get after you for driving 7 miles an hour in a 5 mph zone. That same idiot will be recklessly drivng his golf cart at 27 miles an hour, hooting and hollering, three sheets to oblivion at 10:30 that same night. In fact, one time at Windy Acres Campground at West Hampton Massachusetts, there was a kid dance at the rec hall across from the field from where we stayed and they  played " Who Let the Dogs Out" so many times and so loudly that it was burned into the fabric of my existence so deep that I still have nightmares. Fortunately, "Baby Shark" was not invented yet.

 Winhall however was charming. With only a hand full of electric and water sites, everything else is dry camping. It was priced exactly the same as Vermont State Parks and sites were nice and spacious like Vermont State Parks. Unlike Vermont State Parks you do not have to pay for the showers. Here  you got so much more scenery and then you did have most State parks. The West River and another river join each other in this Park and it has 2 rail trails that go different directions out of the park.

It would be almost 11 months before we actually made it back to the campground. Our first stay was the third week of August 2011. We had an awesome time. That Sunday on the way home there was a freak thunderstorm that came through that dumped tons of rain.  As I drove through the center of Springfield Vermont there was a foot of water running down Main Street. And when I got home my neighbor's swimming pool had a tree fall into it and wrecked the in-ground pool and flattened his pump house. This was nothing compared to what was about to happen next. 6 days later Hurricane Irene hit and the water in the National Park rose to 30 feet higher than the actual level of the average campsite level which was 10 to 20 ft above where the water sits.

Three weeks after the hurricane, we visited on a Sunday afternoon and this beautiful paradise was transformed to something that resembled the surface of the Moon. Everything was just covered in river sand and rock. It was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen.

We were pretty sure that they campground could not possibly open on time the following year, but nature has ways of healing things in ways we don't fully understand. While I know that I'm sure there was a lot of excavation and chainsaw work happening, what surprised me is how the plush grass found it's way up through the hard sandy soil and thrive the once again. We came here the following July and stayed for 5 days and unless we knew about the hurricane we may not have figured out that some of the things that we could see where actually caused by something like that in only one day.

Again in again, we came back to this beautiful campsite with our 2008 Jayco pop up. Our final camp in the popup was Memorial Day 2015, when we realized we outgrew that camper.  We traded up to an old Innsbruck 25 foot travel trailer. We spent vacations here as well as long weekends. People we met here told us that back in the 70s and 80s, this campground was free to stay at!

Free or not, my kids have been raised here.  I wonder if decades later, they will bring their families here and tell all the stories of their growing up and the many stays here in this sweet severe valley.