Smugglers' Notch State Park Campground — Attraction in Stowe

It was a cold September night at Smugglers’ Notch State Park. The leaves had just begun to change, casting blood-red shadows across the forest floor. Campers had thinned out for the season, but one lone tent sat nestled beneath the towering pines—its only occupant, a hiker named Dave, who was wrapping up a solo trek across Vermont’s Long Trail.

Around midnight, Dave was stirred from sleep by something… off. Not a sound, exactly. More like the absence of sound. The forest, normally alive with owls and rustling leaves, had gone completely silent.

Then, a soft thud echoed through the woods.

Followed by another.

And another—closer now.

Dave sat up, heart pounding, and reached for his flashlight. The beam cut a narrow path through the mist seeping in between the trees. Just beyond its edge, something moved. Tall. Slouched. Its legs bent backward, like a deer’s—but its eyes glowed an unnatural yellow, low to the ground but far too wide apart for any forest animal.

He held his breath.

The creature paused, just outside the light, as if studying him. Then it made a sound—a garbled mimicry of a human voice:

“Help… lost…”

Dave bolted. He didn’t stop until dawn.

When he returned the next day with a park ranger, his gear was still there. But the ground around the tent was covered in deep, hoof-like prints. The ranger didn’t say much, only that “things have lived in these woods long before the park was ever made.”

Dave...

I was a park attendant aat Smuggler's Notch State Park,and in the eighties I trained many people for that position.Unless the state has sold parts of the park,it borders on Smugglers' Notch.The sides of smugglers' Notch are so steep that trees' roots cannot grow into the ground and hold it steady,so mudslides are comon several times a year,and hikers,espescially groups of hikers,are warned not to go there Of course in the 80's,when I worked as a ski instructor and part of their ski patrol in the winter and a park attendant the rest of the year,Stowe was very small-Mount Mansfield,Smugglers Notch State Park,Smugglers' Notch, the Trapp Family Lodge,and the entrance to Stowe were all one road going east and west, which merged with route 11,which went north and south.7 miles north of Stowe Route 11 would end at Morrisville, and mergie into route 5,which went east and west..5 miles to the west it would go through Johnson,and 11 miles more it would reach Burlington. As a semi-proffesional nature and macro photographer,I will guarantee that all 3 were great for taking scenic pictures.They also were loaded with covered bridges of a New Hampshire style,although with the increase in traffic and population some of them may have had to...

This campground is nice and very clean. Its also close to some cool stuff, hiking, biking, etc. However, we won't be staying here again due to the unfriendly, rude and condescending staff. We rented two adjacent campsites here over the weekend, which had a shared parking area. We had three vehicles, one of which was a sprinter van. The park rules indicated that all vehicles must be parked off the road in all parking areas. We easily parked all of our vehicles off the road. However the park ranger wouldn't let us keep the van in the parking area and seemed to be making up rules to force us to move the van, even though we seemed to be abiding by the parking policy. We ended up having to park the van off-site, under threat of having the police called, which meant we had to unload the van completely, which was frustrating after a 4 hr ride to get here. I guess, take care if you plan on bringing a larger van here. Staff here are not very...