Route 100 north: three reasons to make the drive from Burlington to Stowe

Route 100 north: three reasons to make the drive from Burlington to Stowe

There's a particular kind of Vermont outing that involves no fixed destination, only a direction and a vague sense that something worth finding lies along the way. Route 100, that spine of a highway running from the Massachusetts border to the Canadian line, has long enabled this kind of wandering. In autumn, leaf-peepers clog it. In winter, it becomes a gauntlet of hairpin turns and white-knuckle descents. But in almost any season, it rewards the patient driver with views of the Green Mountains that don't require a parking lot or a gift shop.

Cannabis retail has given us a new reason to point the car north. Three dispensaries—31° North, Vermont GoodFire, and Zenbarn Farms—sit along or near Route 100 between Burlington and Stowe, each with a distinct inventory and character. None requires a detour longer than fifteen minutes off the highway. Together, they make for what might be called a thoughtful afternoon: a legitimate reason to drive the corridor, stop three times, and actually have something to show for it besides a bag of snacks and a full tank's worth of nostalgia.

Start in the middle: 31° North

31° North sits in Waterbury Center, roughly equidistant from Burlington and Stowe—the mathematical and spiritual midpoint of this route. The shop has built a reputation for curated flower, a staff that doesn't oversell, and a physical space that feels less like a retail environment and more like a place where someone actually thought about how people like to shop. The inventory tends toward smaller producers and estate grows, which means you're more likely to find something unfamiliar than something you've bought five times already.

Waterbury Center itself is worth the pause. Ben & Jerry's factory is there, if you're into that. So is Cold Hollow Cider Mill, which has been making cider and selling it to people since before artisanal was a word. The point is: you're not driving to the middle of nowhere. You're driving to a place that has always understood how to be a destination.

Head north: Vermont GoodFire

Vermont GoodFire, located in Waterbury proper, is a short jog west from Route 100. The shop carries a wider range of product categories than some competitors—flower, sure, but also a serious selection of edibles, concentrates, and topicals. If you're the kind of person who knows what you want before you walk in, GoodFire's inventory depth rewards that confidence. If you're browsing, the staff can point you toward products that actually make sense for your use case, rather than whatever has the highest margin that week.

The Waterbury area, unlike Waterbury Center, has a different energy: it's the town proper, with a downtown that's been through cycles of decline and renewal. The Central Vermont Medical Center is there. So are local restaurants, a bookstore, and the kind of civic infrastructure that suggests people actually live here year-round, not just pass through. Stop for lunch. The town has earned your time.

Finish north: Zenbarn Farms

Zenbarn Farms, in Stowe, is the northernmost stop on this particular itinerary. Stowe itself is the destination—the ski resort, the resort town, the place where leaf-peepers actually want to be in October. Zenbarn, like the town, has a certain polish. The shop's aesthetic reflects its name: clean lines, natural light, a sense that someone cared about how the space feels. The inventory is solid and well-rotated, with regular offerings from established Vermont cultivators alongside limited drops from smaller producers.

Stowe is Stowe. You know what it is. You either want to be there or you don't. But even if you're not a resort-town person, the drive itself—the last fifteen miles or so of Route 100 as it climbs toward the mountains—is worth the gas. The road narrows. The trees close in. You remember why people move to Vermont in the first place.

The route in practice

The math: Burlington to 31° North is about twenty minutes. 31° North to Vermont GoodFire is another ten. Vermont GoodFire to Zenbarn is roughly twenty-five. Total drive time, assuming you stop at each shop for twenty minutes and don't linger elsewhere: about ninety minutes of actual travel, plus your time in-store.

You could do this in an afternoon. You could also stretch it into a full day—add a meal, a walk, some actual time in Stowe or Waterbury. The point of a dispensary crawl, unlike a bar crawl, is that you're not trying to maximize consumption. You're trying to maximize intention. You're saying: I'm going to drive a beautiful road, visit three places where people work with cannabis seriously, and see what I find.

If you're new to the state or new to the retail landscape, this route is a useful education. You'll see three different approaches to the same business. You'll notice which staff members ask good questions and which ones don't. You'll get a sense of what's being grown where, and by whom. And you'll have driven one of Vermont's best roads in the process.

For more on finding the right shop for your needs, check out our dispensary crawl guide or use our strain match tool to narrow your search before you go. And if you're looking for other curated multi-stop routes, we've mapped out several others across the state.