Social media users, please note: You won’t be able to take fall foliage selfies at popular Vermont spots. The town temporarily closed its roads to non-residents due to overcrowding and “visitor misbehavior.”
The usually quiet dirt road from Pomfret to Woodstock (home of the oft-photographed Sleepy Hollow Farm) will be open to residents only until mid-October. Local law enforcement plans to enforce it.
In recent years, social media users and photographers have crowded the narrow roads to snap selfies and photos of fall foliage on scenic private estates, drawn to colorful hillside trees, barns and classic New England homes.
Locals say they understand the allure of beautiful foliage and scenery, but say some visitors go too far: blocking traffic with parked vehicles, impeding access for residents and emergency vehicles, and picnicking on private land surrounding the park. Even urinating and defecating. Home. One Instagram poster even revealed to fans how easy it is to get around the private home’s gate, which also has surveillance cameras.
“Misbehaving visitors damage the road, cause accidents, have to be dragged out of ditches, trample gardens, defecate on private property, park in fields and driveways, and abuse residents,” organizers of the GoFundMe site Save Cloudland Road said.
“It’s such a shame,” said local resident Nancy Bassett. “It’s ruined a lot of people’s lives.”
Overcrowding caused by social media posts has plagued other destinations around the world, from a street in Paris to a small California city packed with tourists when heavy winter rains spurred a “super bloom” of wild poppies .Disneyland-sized crowds Lake Elsinore, California, In 2019, “They trampled on the habitat they valued so highly.”
Lake Elsinore Mayor Natasha Johnson said people parked illegally on the highway, causing traffic jams, disrupting emergency responders and infringing on residents’ ability to shop or even go to work. This year, the canyon where wild poppies grow and the nearby parking lot are completely off limits, with sheriffs warning violators could be ticketed, towed or even arrested.
Zion National Park in Utah has taken another approach to easing overcrowding and improving safety on its popular Angels Landing hike: Hikers are now required to obtain a permit.
On that Vermont trail, the past few years have seen an increase in leaf-viewing season traffic “due to the tremendous tourist interest on private property” that has created “significant safety, environmental, aesthetic and quality of life issues,” Select Board Pomfret, a town of just over 900 people, wrote in a letter to the community.
Reactions from social media users varied.
“Honestly, it’s been filmed so many times that I can’t see the point anyway,” one person wrote on Facebook. “I definitely can’t blame them because social media has leaked a lot of great attractions.”
Local milk truck driver advises: “Please come to Vermont and enjoy our foliage. It’s amazing. And for the love of God, please pull over before you stop to take a photo. Please pull over, and Not 25 miles at 50 mph.”
Other posters wrote, “Vermont is really beautiful. So are a lot of other places,” and, “Why on earth would you want to go to a place with a lot of people? There are so many beautiful spots to enjoy, and you’ll have them all.”
The scenic, winding Cloudland Road in Vermont is currently closed to non-residents, with no parking and no photography signs posted along the farm. There is also a no entry sign at the door.
Locals encourage visitors to visit nearby attractions, which have parking and other facilities.
“People love leaves, we know leaves, it brings people here and we don’t want that to stop,” said Linda Arbuckle, a clerk at a local grocery store. “Unfortunately, some people, not all of them, have taken the next step and people have gone home and people are eating lunch on their porches.”
Svlook
