The Gem Hunt
America decides what makes the map.
Every state has a spot the algorithms miss — the one locals send strangers to. Name it. Vote on the finalists. The winners get built into Roamward, the scenic road-trip app that proves you actually went. No download required to play.
Nominate
What does Vermont do better than anywhere?
One hidden gem — a place a chatbot would never know. The most-named spots become finalists, and the crowd votes the winner into Roamward.
Vote
Vermont gems, most-loved first
- 1Dorset QuarryThis emerald-green swimming hole was America's oldest marble quarry before springs flooded it in the 1920s; now you swim and cliff-jump off smooth white ledges right on Route 30 in the southwest corner.
- 2Texas FallsA short, forested loop trail in the Green Mountain National Forest near Hancock leads past a chain of cascades tumbling through a mossy, sculpted gorge — the quiet central-Vermont waterfall.
- 3Hogback Mountain OverlookPull over on the Molly Stark Byway between Wilmington and Brattleboro for the famous "100-mile view" sweeping across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, best at sunset or peak foliage.
- 4Museum of Everyday LifeIn a barn outside Glover in the Northeast Kingdom, this self-service museum runs earnest, oddball exhibitions devoted to the pencil, the safety pin, even dust — turn the lights on when you walk in.
- 5Creamery Covered BridgeJust west of Brattleboro, an 1879 covered bridge with a rare covered pedestrian walkway bolted onto one side in 1920 — a quick, easy stop on Route 9 with a small twist of history.
- 6Bread and Puppet MuseumA two-story 1860s barn in Glover crammed floor-to-rafters with the towering papier-mache puppets and masks from decades of radical political pageants — eerie, free, and open daily in the Northeast Kingdom.
- 7Hyde Log CabinA hand-hewn 1783 cabin on Grand Isle, believed to be the oldest original log cabin in the country, set right along Route 2 in the heart of the Lake Champlain Islands.
- 8Smugglers' Notch PassA white-knuckle stretch of Route 108 that threads between house-sized boulders and sheer cliffs below Mount Mansfield, so tight that trucks famously wedge themselves stuck — pull over for hidden caves north of Stowe.
- 9Moss Glen FallsA 50-foot cascade tumbling through mossy ledges in the wild Granville Gulf, a short boardwalk from a roadside pullout on Route 100 — one of central Vermont's prettiest waterfalls.
- 10Wilson CastleA 32-room Gilded Age mansion of brick and turrets rising improbably out of rural Proctor, packed with stained glass and antiques and a haunted reputation, with tours in the marble country near Rutland.
Not your state’s turn yet?
Want Roamward to map Vermont next?
Add your vote — the loudest state gets mapped first.
How it works
Nominate
Drop the most underrated spot in your state — the gem an itinerary generator would never surface.
The crowd ranks it
Name a place someone already nominated and it rises. The most-loved gems become the state’s finalists.
Vote the winner in
Finalists go to a public vote. Winners get built into Roamward — credited to the people who found them.
Go verify it
Drive it, GPS-verify the stop, earn the badge, and share the map that proves you were first.
Don’t miss the winners
Be the first to find what the crowd picks.
Join early access and we’ll tell you when your state’s gem wins — and when Roamward opens for iOS testing.
Get early access