The White Mountains of New Hampshire
Sunday, September 21
At the little town of Errol the route turned west towards the Dixville Notch home of the Balsams Hotel. At the Balsams the townspeople meet at midnight each election day to cast, count and record their votes resulting in the first completed election in the USA. The trees began to show their fall colors as soon as we entered the notch region. Bright reds, and yellow amongst the green. The road became steeper and steeper until it was sided by the sheer cliffs of the notch. Coming down the other side the land opened out to reveal the Balsams Hotel, a huge white structure across a small lake. Unfortunately it is closed for renovations and we could not enter.
Continuing on we turned south on US 3 paralleling the Connecticut River, we came on our first covered bridge. It is one lane across the Connecticut River into Vermont. I took a few pictures and we crossed over and back to continue on south to Groveton and our next bridge. It was no longer in use but lovely. Now we turned east alone HN 110. We stopped again in the town of Stark to find their bridge undergoing reconstruction. By the way Stark NH was name for General John Stark, the hero of the battle of Bennington. Stark County Ohio, our home county, is also named for General Stark. The final leg of our trip took us through Berlin, NH then back to the campground for the evening.
Despite not seeing any moose, we enjoyed a beautiful day traveling through the New Hampshire countryside.
Monday did not look good for our trip up the Mountain, it was overcast and cold. The forecast for the mountain was worse, 70 mile and hour wind gust and near freezing temperatures. So off we went on another sightsee drive. This time directly west towards Vermont then south through the Franconia Pass. Again the trees put on a spectacular show, reds, yellows and oranges mixed with the dark greens. Of course the Old Man of the Mountain no longer overlooks the Pass but the high cliffs are still spectacular. At the little town of Lincoln we picked up the Kancarnagus Highway going east. We were told it was “very scenic" as opposed to just “scenic" liked the other roads. It lived up to their predictions. Each overlook was more breath taking than the one before. The colors in the trees were glorious. I really is not something I can describe. You must see it. Although it was very windy and cold we would just stand and stare at the views. We did take one hike up to Sabbady Falls. I cannot tell you how beautiful it is, just look at my pictures. In Conway we turned north back to the campground but it was growing too dark to enjoy the sights.
We had hopes that Tuesday would be our day for the big Mountain but no it was as cold and windy Monday. After listening to the forecast we decided to stay one more night and hope for the best on Wednesday. Today we would go south on NH 16 and find some waterfalls. We hiked to three falls. The first was at Wildcat Mountain, a hike of about 3/4 of a mile each way through the forest. The Glen Ellis Falls was a short but steep hike down 100 carved granite steps to the foot of the falls. Plunging 64 Ft from the top to the first pool then several small drops to lower pools. Worth every one of those steps up to the top again. Our last falls was the Crystal Cascade, only .3 miles from the trailhead it was a series of rock fill cascades down the mountainside.
The girls went with us on each of our trips, they always seem so content to ride along and they both bounced along the trails as we hiked.
Tomorrow will be the day we will drive up Mount Washington. The weather is going to be sunny and calm!
September 22nd, 2014