Camel’s Hump, Vermont, from the Waterbury Side - The Valentine Family

We enjoyed a great two-family hike up Camel's Hump on Memorial Day weekend. We approached the mountain from the Waterbury side, having previously hiked from the Richmond side, and found that we much prefer the Waterbury approach. The day was beautiful, and our only complaint was the blackflies. Between two families, we had four adults, three 10-year-olds, a 12-year-old, a 14-year-old, and two dogs.

The summit was well worth the hike. On our perfectly clear day, the views in all directions were amazing and kept us snapping photos and enjoying our picnic lunch for almost an hour. On the way down, we decided to try a side trail where we'd heard we could see a downed airplane from the 1950s. I wouldn't recommend trying this trail, as we never found the plane, and our younger hikers didn't appreciate the added mileage.

We were interested to see the significant damage on Camel's Hump Road from the flooding during the summer of 2011. Sections of the road had to be rebuilt, and you can still see the piles of debris from the high water.

Keep in mind that if you bring dogs, as we did, they must be on leash at the summit to protect the delicate alpine habitat. There was plenty of water for the dogs to drink from streams along the trail, but we humans were awfully glad to have stowed extra water bottles in a cooler in our car.

We highly recommend this hike – great fun all around. Next up for us is Mount Mansfield!