The Mad River Valley is where I finally understood the appeal of a Vermont ski town in summer — a red covered bridge, farm stands doubling as restaurants, and Lia insisting we detour to a round barn just because it sounded strange.
The covered bridge is the first thing anyone shows you in Waitsfield, and it earns the attention — built in 1833, painted barn red, spanning the Mad River right at the edge of the village in a way that makes it nearly impossible to photograph badly. Lia and I parked and walked out onto it, boards creaking underfoot, river running fast and shallow beneath us over a bed of smooth stones. The Mad River Valley takes its name from that same river, which despite its name looked entirely calm the afternoon we visited, more interested in reflecting the sky than doing anything dramatic.
A barn shaped like nothing else in Vermont
We found the Round Barn Farm almost by accident, chasing a sign down a side road, and it turned out to be worth the detour — a genuinely round barn, one of very few left in the state, its interior a spiral of hand-hewn beams rising toward a cupola that lets light drop straight down into the center. It’s used for weddings now, but on the quiet weekday afternoon we visited, a caretaker let us look around anyway. Nearby, the General Wait House, a handsome Federal-style building named for one of the valley’s founding families, anchors the historic core of Waitsfield village, its brick facade dating back to the early 1800s when this valley was still mostly forest being cleared field by field.
Farm-to-table before it had a name
What struck me most about the valley was how unselfconscious its food culture felt, like farm-to-table had just always been the only option rather than a marketing term. We ate dinner at a place sourcing greens and lamb from farms we could practically see from the parking lot, and stopped at a roadside stand the next morning for cheese made a few miles up the valley. In winter this whole area empties toward Sugarbush, the ski resort that draws most of Waitsfield’s visitors, but in the warmer months the mountain just sits there quietly above the valley, green instead of white, while the farms do the talking.
Getting There
Burlington International Airport is the closest option, about fifty minutes northwest by car. From Boston, it’s roughly three hours north via I-89. A car is essential in the Mad River Valley — the villages, farms, and Sugarbush itself are spread across a rural stretch with no meaningful public transit, and half the appeal is driving the back roads between them.
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