Hiking and North Bennington

Trip Start Jun 13, 2009

Trip End Jun 20, 2009

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Flag of United States North Bennington, Vermont
Monday, June 15, 2009

We decided to go hiking in the morning. It seems to be the best weather for the day. We went to Molly Stark State Park and hiked the Mount Olga Trail, 1.7 miles roundtrip. At the summit, there is a lookout tower that we climbed. It was a former fire watchmen's lookout. It provides views of the southern Vermont Green Mountains, the Berkshires to the south in Massachusetts and Mount Monadnock to the east in New Hampshire. It is cloudy, and we do not see much.

We then drove to North Bennington to see the Park McCullough House. We saw a goundhog, our first sighting ever of a groundhog. They are not in the south. The Park McCullough House is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a Victorian mansion. McCullough made his money in the California Gold Rush, not as a goldminer but as an attorney to settle lawsuits. He returned to Vermont with $1,000,000 and built this mansion in 1865. Two of the eventual occupants of this house became governors of Vermont. President Woodrow Wilson stayed in the home. This mansion and furnishings were donated to the State.

A hail storm came through Bennington while we were at the mansion. It was so much hail that we initially thought it was snow but wondered how that could be.

We stopped at Bennington Potters. We watched pottery being made.

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