Loading Getting Up the Mountain…
How bad the crawl up Mountain Road will be, and the smart way to beat it — work out your parking (free after 2 p.m. or with a full car), or park free and ride the shuttle.
Loading the latest information…
On a busy weekend it can take up to three hours to drive up Mountain Road to the resort. Here's how locals beat it — when to come, how to park for free, and the free shuttle up the mountain.
On holiday weekends and powder days the drive up Mountain Road (Route 108) can crawl for hours — locals have watched people leave their cars running in the standstill to dash into a shop. The two things you actually control are when you go and how you park.
The smart way to do it
Ski season — roughly late November to mid-April.
No reservation needed — park first, then pay at a kiosk with your licence plate. Weekdays are free.
These are the most recently published (2025–26) rules; the resort resets them each season.
To park free, fill the car to 4, come after 2 p.m. — or park free at a feeder lot and ride the shuttle.
Mountain Road Shuttle (Route 108) · free
From the 2026–27 season, Rural Community Transportation (RCT) takes over the route — check the times again before next winter.
Commodores Inn → Stowe Town Hall → Route 108 at Cape Cod Road → Spruce Peak base → Mansfield base
Leave the car at one of these and take the shuttle up:
Track the bus live in the Transit app.
Live status: Smugglers' Notch (Route 108 north)
The Notch — Route 108 north to Jeffersonville — closes every winter, usually from late October to mid- or late-May.
GPS often routes you over the Notch. In winter it's gated and impassable, so don't follow it. Big rigs, RVs and trailers are banned year-round on the hairpins.
In the fall there's no shuttle and no paid-parking program — just heavy through-traffic. The jams are on Route 100 through the village and the 100/108 intersection, not the lift lots.
Peak color is usually the first two weeks of October.
Vermont's weekly Fall Foliage ReportForesters report where the color is each week through September and October.
Confirm before you go
Resort parking prices and the shuttle operator reset every season — these are the most recently published (2025–26) rules, and the shuttle changes hands to RCT for 2026–27. Always confirm the day's prices and shuttle times on the official pages before you head up.
Source: Stowe Mountain Resort parking, Green Mountain Transit Route 108, VTrans and Vermont Tourism, cross-checked with VTDigger and Vermont Public, checked June 26, 2026 (last month).
Free after 2 p.m., or with 4+
$30 to park weekends and holidays · free shuttle up the road
Town Tools builds free, public tools for Stowe and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.