A Vermont town fed-up with annoying influencers has shut down a road beloved by Instagram and TikTok users.
Pomfret has been flooded with influencers for the last five years as the state’s autumn foliage makes for the perfect backdrop for their social media posts.
But Instagrammers and TikTokers have been accused of blocking roads and emergency vehicles from getting through, while often getting their cars stuck on uneven ground and getting into residents’ driveways.
As a result, locals have decided to close Cloudland Road – the single-lane path running the town – on September 25 for three weeks in an effort to keep the tourists
Locals say the Influencer Era has brought a different kind of tourist to the area – one that does not mind blocking traffic or getting into residents’ driveways to get that perfect shot.
A Vermont town fed-up with annoying influencers has shut down a road beloved by Instagram and TikTok users
Locals say the Influencer Era has brought a different kind of tourist to the area – one that does not mind blocking traffic or getting into residents’ driveways to get that perfect shot
‘Having driven up that way during foliage, I’ve seen lines of cars that are pulled over to the side of the road, dozens long, 20, 30, 40, cars per row,’ chair of Pomfret’s select board Benjamin Brickner told Fortune.
‘This road is not meant for parking along the side of any number, so to have three dozen cars along the side of the road is just eye-popping.’
Brickner added that locals hope that as influencers stop promoting the road, the flocks of tourists flocking to it will organically decline.
‘And that as interest dies down organically…we can begin to taper off the intervention that’s required each year,’ he added.
The waves of influencers has also affected the nearby town of Woodstock, with the executive director of the chamber of commerce saying it has made the road dangerous.
‘During Fall foliage season, crowds commonly surge to hundreds of people at one time, and tour bus companies have even joined the fracas,’ locals wrote last year
An influencer visiting Pomfret in Vermont shows off a picturesque fall view during a walk along a sleepy lane
‘It is a very small, one-lane dirt road,’ she told Fortune. ‘And people from away don’t really understand that if there’s two cars parked on it, then an ambulance couldn’t get through, or a fire truck.’
The town, home to about 900 people, also made the decision to close down the road last year, raising $22,000 in a GoFundMe to contract officials to monitor it and make sure only locals passed through.
‘During Fall foliage season, crowds commonly surge to hundreds of people at one time, and tour bus companies have even joined the fracas,’ locals wrote last year.
‘Cloudland and surrounding roads become impassable during the Fall, and roads and 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.’
Sleepy Hollow Farm, another go-to location for influencers with sweeping views, was also shut down for the fall last year.
Vermont residents closed Cloudland Road in Pomfret (pictured) after annoying influencers flocked in to take selfies with fall foliage
A sign was erected on a gate to Sleepy Hollow Farm warning people to keep out
‘It was too much. Something had to be done,’ Mike Doten, whose family has lived in the area and owned the farm since the late 1700s, told the Boston Globe.
Cloudland Road and Doten’s farm had long been a favorite among those looking to quietly take in the changing season colors and view the rolling hills until the social media sensation took hold over the past five years.
Influencers parked haphazardly on the narrow, unpaved road and walked brazenly onto private properties appearing to ignore no trespassing signs conspicuously placed to ward off nuisance posers.
Residents of Vermont have been used to an influx of tourists, especially photographers, who are known to be ‘quiet’ and ‘not bother anyone,’ Doten said.
The inn-stayers are also bearable Doten’s wife Amy Robb said. ‘Both from a numbers perspective, and how they behave.’
Locals Mike Doten and Amy Robb live in Sleepy Hollow Farm, whose picturesque view has drawn huge crowds of tourists. The road has now been closed to try and deal with the deluge of annoying influencers
‘The TikTokers started flocking here and they kept growing, year after year,’ Doten added.
Those drawn by social media visited the area under the impression that it’s a public park, residents said.
A few years ago, Doten and his wife were astonished when they watched a woman set up a portable changing booth and frequently emerge in an assortment of outfits to take selfies.
‘There is no way a fire truck or an ambulance can get up this road in the middle of foliage season,’ Doten said. ‘It’s just too crowded.’
