QUECHEE, Vt. (WCAX) – The first weekend in October is traditionally a big foliage tourism weekend, but this year’s muted colors in some areas are leaving visitors a bit underwhelmed.
The crowds were out on Friday at the Quechee Gorge, which is to be expected in early October. But the usual bright colors that draw leaf peepers simply aren’t popping this year due to drought conditions.
“A little underwhelmed. Just thinking, wow, it’s not what I remembered. So, I didn’t know if it’s just me thinking it’s different or if it was something happening. So, it is obviously from the drought, but still beautiful though, you can’t deny that,” said Mike Bederman, who is visiting from California with his wife, Helen.
“We have been up to Killington. Yesterday we did a bike ride through Norwich, Vermont, which was awesome,” Helen said.
The couple added that they would like to come back on a year with more rain.
Historically, the state gets around 2.5 million visitors during the fall foliage season.
