Smugglers' Notch Trail

Smugglers' Notch is one of the most dramatic mountain passes in New England, a narrow cleft between Mount Mansfield and Sterling Mountain through which Route 108 winds at elevations that force the highway to close every winter when snow and ice make passage impossible. The notch trail follows the historic smugglers' route used during the War of 1812, when Vermont farmers drove cattle and traded goods with Canada in defiance of Jefferson's trade embargo, and again during Prohibition when bootleggers exploited the notch's remote character for rum-running. The trail threads through the notch's distinctive geological feature — a chaos of enormous boulders fallen from the sheer 1,000-foot cliffs on both sides, some the size of small houses, creating caves, passages, and overhangs that served as hiding places for contraband. Named caves include Smugglers' Cave, King George's Cave, and Fat Man's Misery, a squeeze passage that tests hikers of generous dimension. The cliff faces above the trail support nesting peregrine falcons in spring and summer; trail closures may be in effect near active nest sites from late March through July. The notch microclimate is significantly cooler and wetter than surrounding terrain, supporting a lush fern and moss understory characteristic of cold-air drainage zones.