Road Trips for Your Vermont Bucket List 

click to enlarge

• File: Don Whipple
• Museum of Everyday Life

Museum of Everyday Life

3482 Dry Pond Rd., Glover, museumofeverydaylife.org

We know, we know: Museums are borrrrring. And what could be more mundane than one devoted to "everyday life," right? Believe it or not, this little shop of curios is well worth the long trek to the Northeast Kingdom. Housed in a dilapidated barn next to museum founder and curator Clare Dolan's house, the Museum of Everyday Life celebrates ordinary objects — scissors, pencils and toothbrushes, for example — that become close to extraordinary when collected en masse. The museum is free, though Dolan does accept donations. She simply asks that you turn the lights out when you leave. Don't miss the nearby Bread and Puppet Museum, too.

Burton Island State Park

2714 Hathaway Point Rd., St. Albans (Kamp Kill Kare ferry access point), vtstateparks.com

Lake Champlain has roughly 80 islands — some large, some small. For a truly remote island getaway, take a ferry to Burton Island, a 253-acre park off the tip of St. Albans Point. The quiet, car-free oasis offers three miles of relaxing shoreline. Campsites book quickly; reserve yours well in advance.

Cold Hollow Sculpture Park

4280 Boston Post Rd., Enosburg Falls, coldhollowsculpturepark.com

Get off the grid and feed your soul! Deep in a magical rural land an hour northeast of Burlington — and beyond cell service — more than 50 of David Stromeyer's monumental steel abstractions dot 200 acres of meadows and hills. The park is free and open to the public late June through early October.

Dog Mountain

143 Parks Rd., St. Johnsbury, dogmt.com

Vermonters worship their dogs, sometimes literally. Don't believe us? Visit Dog Chapel, part of a 150-acre pup paradise. Created by the late artist Stephen Huneck — famous for his canine-centric carvings and paintings — Dog Mountain is complete with off-leash hiking trails, swimming ponds and plenty of tennis balls. Woof!

Pump House Indoor Waterpark

830 Jay Peak Rd., Jay, jaypeakresort.com

No sun? No problem. At Jay Peak's Pump House Indoor Waterpark you can catch waves year-round. From thrilling slides like La Chute to the Flowrider surf pool to the lazily flowing Big River, the park has something to suit every level of leisure.

Quechee Gorge

5800 Woodstock Rd., Hartford, vtstateparks.com

Pull over at a bridge on Route 4, summon all your courage and peer down. One hundred and sixty-five feet below, the Ottauquechee River flows through Vermont's deepest gorge, carved by glaciers roughly 13,000 years ago. They don't call it "Vermont's Little Grand Canyon" for nothin'.

Rock of Ages Granite Quarry

560 Graniteville Rd., Graniteville, rockofages.com

Stand atop the world's largest deep-hole dimension granite quarry and gaze out at spectacular sheared cliffs that plunge 600 feet into a pool of turquoise water. It's so otherworldly, parts of a Star Trek movie were shot here. Don't miss the outdoor granite bowling alley and artisans crafting gravestones.