We continued to enjoy the fall foliage as we drove west from Stowe and eventually crossed into New Hampshire. We have visited this state before and these days would take us back to the area we had visited briefly in 2008. However this time we would be able to see much more.
Our first stop was in the town of Littleton, where we stopped to see their cute covered bridge, Old Grist Mill ( that has now been converted to a brewery!) and to visit Chutters Candy Store. Chutter’s claim to fame is that it has the longest candy bar in the world. I couldn’t resist popping some tasty morsels into a bag – some great sour candies, licorice and choccies.
From Littleton it was only a 20 minute drive to the Cannon Mountain Ski Field, where we climbed onto the Aerial Tramway for the ride to the 4,080-foot summit of Cannon Mountain. We had planned to do this in 2008 but we arrived on the Columbus Day weekend which is one of the busiest weekends in the year ( Peak Leaf peeping season!) and the queues went all the way out to the carpark. back then we were on limited time so had to give it a miss. This time we are mid week and waited only a few minutes and away we went! At the top there is a short walk to an observation tower with fabulous views out over the Franconia Notch State Park. It was a clear enough day that we could see peaks in Vermont and Maine. This tram was the first of it’s type in the USA
The ride down was quick and we were on our way driving through Franconia Notch to walk the Flume Gorge trail in the state park. Franconia Notch is a spectacular mountain pass traversed by a unique parkway which extends from the Flume Gorge at the south to Echo Lake at the north. Discovered in 1808, the Flume is a natural granite gorge extending 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty. The granite walls rise to a height of 90 feet, and the Pemigewasset River rushes through the gorge over cascading waterfalls, through glacial pools and over boulders. At the bottom it flows through a covered bridge. Its a very popular trail , some if it along a narrow boardwalk suspended from the cliff, and they have timed entries to control the number of people going in. We were able to go in straight away and do the roughly hour long walk. It was really lovely! We also saw several little chipmunks skittering across the path.
After our walk, we ate our leftovers pizza from last night for our late lunch on one of the picnic tables in the grounds .
A short drive down the road and we arrived in Lincoln, and our hotel for the next two nights. We had plenty of space here, its an apartment with a full kitchen, so we’re happy to cater for ourselves the next two nights.
Next morning, we headed out to drive the Kancamagus Scenic Byway , which crosses the White mountains and provided some more lovely foliage views.
We were on our way to visit the other big drawcard in the White Mountains, Mount Washington. It is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 ft and is notorious for its erratic weather. There are three ways to get to the summit, you can hike up if you have the energy, or you can catch a ride on the Cog Railway, or you can pay a hefty toll to drive to the top on the Mount Washington Auto Road (or book a seat in one of the tour cars that will drive you to the top) Naturally we chose to drive! It’s an eight mile long, very steep , winding scenic drive that winds its way to the summit. They warn you at the bottom that it’s not for the fainthearted and I must admit I was pretty uncomfortable in some sections where the ground dropped away below the road and there were no guardrails. As we climed higher above the treeline the views became more and more spectacular and then we finally pulled in to the carpark at the top. As we walked up the steps we saw one of the Cog railway trains just starting to load up passengers for its slow trip down the mountain.
There was a short queue of people lining up to take a phot at the actual summit of the mountain that’s marked with a sign, so of course we lined up. Than we wandered around the summit taking in the views in all directions to Maine, Vermont and Canada and visiting the museum. Today was a beautiful day but the top of the mountain can get some dreadful weather, in fact in 1934 the highest wind speeds on earth were recorded up there!
We were just heading back to the car when Neil made a very disastrous discovery that made our hearts plummet. I’ll let you read his blog to read about that but it meant we had a panicked return to the top before we sorted things out and could return with relief to the car.
The drive down was slow. The road is so steep they advise you to drive in low gear and “pump the brakes rather than riding them. Also, the strongly recommend you stop on the way down to allow the brakes to cool. The views going down were equally spectacular.
Before long we were back at the bottom! On the way back to our hotel we detoured to North Conway to visit an outlet shopping center. New Hampshire is one of only a couple of states that has no sales tax so shopping here is a tourist attraction and the outlet centers are huge. We picked up a couple of tops and then drove back along the Kancamagus Highway and stopped to see the Swift River lower falls. It’s such a pretty spot, particularly with the fall foliage.
We enjoyed more lovely foliage on the way back to our hotel for a good nights rest.
I have to say I’ve loved our time in New Hampshire, Vermont was lovely but personally I think new hampshire is the winner for marvelous scenery.