Vermont town to close popular leaf-peeping road to tourist traffic

Leaf-peeping photographers have been flocking to Jenne Road for decades to catch an iconic photograph of the Vermont hillsides ablaze with color while the sunlight splashes on an old red farmhouse.

The dirt road in Reading climbs up out of the valley, giving professional and amateur photographers a perfect perch from which to capture Vermont in all its peak foliage splendor.

And the view from Jenne Road has been used in everything from television commercials to magazine spreads and Hollywood films like Forrest Gump.

But that view, which has been shared countless times on social media, has become too popular for the tiny road in the tiny town.

Last year, the Reading Select Board closed Jenne Road to all visiting traffic because residents there said the congestion had become too much. And that decision appears to have worked.

The board, at its most recent meeting on Aug. 5, once again voted unanimously to close the road during peak foliage this year, shuttering the chance for tourists' camera shutters to capture the trees at their flaming best.

“It is a really beautiful view, and especially with foliage,” said Bill Bakker, who’s been living on Jenne Road for 10 years. “It’s the way the hills sort of roll, and from this one viewpoint you’re sort of looking down through the field and onto the farm. So I’m not going to say it’s not beautiful.”

Bakker said in just the decade he’s been there he’s seen the crowds grow in late September and early October when the leaves are red, yellow, orange and brown.

He attributes that to social media, which makes the view accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection.

And when they do make their way to Vermont, he said more and more of them are finding their way to Jenne Road.

“You would end up with a huge line of cars parked along the side of the road, and there’s definitely people double parked,” he said. “We’ve had people park on our private property. It’s just really just a very, very, very bad scene.”

Bakker said there was a huge improvement last year with the road closed, and so he approached the select board at their August meeting to encourage them to set the wheels in motion for this year.

“I wanted to get it rolling,” he said. “I wanted to make sure the select board wouldn’t forget about it. I wanted to make sure that any preparations that they needed to make, that they had enough time to do it.”

Heather Pelham, Vermont tourism and marketing commissioner, said that while there’s only been one other road closure she knows about — in nearby Pomfret — the state is grappling with some of the same issues at popular hiking trailheads, and along scenic roadways.

“A decision like that is definitely up to the local community, and we certainly understand, and would support that public safety and the needs of residents do need to come first,” said Pelham. “Tourism drives a huge part of our economy, and it’s especially important for small rural towns that have wonderful amenities, but it is a balance. We have to make sure visitors know they have to respect private property. We need to let them know you can’t have thousands of people on the same trail at the same time, so we encourage folks to think about going to undiscovered places. We’re always trying to make sure we’re spreading folks around.”

This story is a production of the New England News Collaborative. It was originally published by Vermont Public.