Town to social media users: Do your leaf-peeping elsewhere
Social media users take note: You won’t be able to snap that fall foliage selfie at a popular Vermont spot. The town has temporarily closed the road to nonresidents due to overcrowding and “poorly behaved tourists.”
The normally quiet dirt road from Pomfret to Woodstock, home to the frequently photographed Sleepy Hollow Farm, will be open only to residents through mid-October. And local law enforcement plans to enforce it.
In recent years, social media users and photographers have clogged the narrow road for selfies and fall foliage shots of the scenic private property, drawn by its colorful hillside trees, the barn and classic New England home.
Locals say they understand the lure of the beautiful leaves and landscape, but say some visitors have gone too far:
• blocking traffic with their parked vehicles,
• obstructing access for residents and emergency vehicles, and
• picnicking and even relieving themselves on private land surrounding the home.
One Instagram poster even tipped followers about how easy it is to go around the entrance gate to the private property, which also has cameras.
‘It spoils it’
surveillance
“Poorly behaved tourists have damaged roads, had accidents, required towing out of ditches, trampled gardens, defecated on private property, parked in fields and driveways, and verbally assaulted residents,” said the organizers of a GoFundMe site called Save Cloudland Road.
“It’s just a shame,” said local resident Nancy Bassett. “It spoils it for a lot of people.”
Overcrowding driven by social media posts have plagued other destinations around the globe, from a street in Paris to a small city in California that was overrun with visitors when heavy winter rains produced a “super bloom” of wild poppies. Disneylandsized crowds hit Lake Elsinore, Calif., in 2019 “who trampled the very habitat that they placed so high in regard.”
People illegally parked their cars along the freeway, created gridlock affecting emergency responders and infringed on residents’ ability to shop or even get to work, Lake Elsinore Mayor Natasha Johnson said. This year, the canyons where wild poppies grow and nearby parking areas were completely off-limits, with the sheriff warning violators could be ticketed, towed or even arrested.