my trip to the white mountains

[runawayjim]

last week i took a trip with my new fiancee to the woodstock inn in north woodstock, NH. it was a great trip and i actually used my camera to take some pics along the way. we spent about 3 days in NH. the second day was spent driving and walking around franconia notch and we also drove to the cog railway at mt washington. the third day we drove across the kancamagus highway from lincoln to conway. that was my favorite part of the trip... i had never really been on a mountain road before growing up on the shoreline of CT and moving to providence just over 2 years ago. i intend to spend more time in the mountains...

woodstock, nh... looking north down main st.

main st, looking north (taken by my fiancee)

main st, looking south (by my fiancee)

mt laffayette, franconia notch (highest point in the park)

bike path in the state park

bretton woods ski resort taken from the cog railway parking lot

mt washington hotel, bretton woods, NH

mt washington

pics from the kancamagus

taken from the highest point along the kancamagus

one thing about the trip... all the shops in north woodstock were closed during the duration of our stay there. i found this odd, although we did go from sunday through tuesday. i wasn't surprised they were closed on sunday when we got there (around 5), but they were closed monday as well and didn't seem open on tuesday when we drove through. we didn't even realize there was another town nearby that actually had stores that were open until monday night when we drove into lincoln. it was a great trip... i had never spent much time in the white mountains except driving through franconia notch in the summer to VT and after thanksgiving to go skiing. we basically saw all NH's major attractions in that one trip... franconia notch/old man (or what's left of it), mt washington, lake winnipesauke, north conway outlets, dinner with a friend in manchester (although i don't consider manchester a major attraction of NH, no offense to anyone), and we drove through nashua (again, not a major attraction in my opinion).

[Cotuit]

Growing up all my family vacations where to the Franconia Notch area, my great-grandfather had a cabin near Plymouth. I love that area, the Kancamangus is nice isn't it. Did you get to The Flume or The Basin?

[runawayjim]

Growing up all my family vacations where to the Franconia Notch area, my great-grandfather had a cabin near Plymouth. I love that area, the Kancamangus is nice isn't it. Did you get to The Flume or The Basin?

the flume was closed because it's still "winter" up there... but we did sort of get to the basin. i actually do have pics of that as well, but my fiancee took them (and honestly, i think i take better pics than she does, but i won't tell her that, plus her camera doesn't take great pics). we only got to the handicap accessible viewing area for it because the trails were covered in snow and ice (packed slick snow) and she's still got ankle troubles from our accident with the cop in november. we plan on making another trip up there in the summer when she's hopefully better... we'll bring bikes though. i want to go up to the top of mt washington as well...

i absolutely loved driving the kancamangus. she was getting sick towards the end because of the frost heaves though. she was reminded why she used to get car sick when she was younger growing up in wells, maine and wolfeboro, nh... no real highways nearby so all travel was over frost heaves in the winter. the only other time i really spent much time in northern new england was when i was between 10 and 12 and i visited my older cousin at norwich univ in nortfield, VT. we stayed in the sugarbush area in october... talk about great foliage! that and i went to "see" phish in coventry, vt (which is when i drove through franconia notch for the first time) in august of 2004. i do have pics of that trip, but they're mostly of lines of cars... probably the worst traffic jam VT has ever seen. i should post some of them. they got great mountain views.

[M. Brown]

I love the Kancamangus. I had some pictures of the time I went up there, but they got deleted off of my camera or something. That Mt. Washington shot is amazing.

[runawayjim]

I love the Kancamangus. I had some pictures of the time I went up there, but they got deleted off of my camera or something. That Mt. Washington shot is amazing.

thanks, this was some of my first real attempts at photography. i've always really liked nature shots, so it was only natural that i took all the pics i did. i can't wait to go back in the summer. i wanna get another shot of mt washington to compare it without the snow (or maybe there'll still be some white at the very top).

are there any roads like the kancamangus in vermont? i've always fit in more with the vermont attitude than the NH one... probably due to my phishy-ness. but i really love the rolling green mountains...

[runawayjim]

Northern New Hampshire is beautiful. You probably choose one of the worse seasons to go up there, too - late May is great because it is warm enough to go hiking and such but the rivers are still running full tilt. Fall of course is beautiful, too.

Mt Washington is great, but there are other less expensive mountains to get to the top of. Personally I like Cannon's Tram - when at the top take the walk along the trail that leads to views of the notch - that is incredible. And in the wamer months I love to drive up to the top of Cathedral Ledge - if you take the paths to the right you can reach an area without the fences, but be careful!

The towns up there are a little quiet when it isn't tourist season. I think you will ifnd a little more in Loncoln than Woodstock, but North Conway has most of the action. Jackson is a beautiful town with a great waterfall right in the center, but there is not a lot to do there.

I always thought that would be a great place to build a swiss-style train system.

yeah, my fiancee was on a 2 week break from grad school, so we planned the trip for then (i knew i was proposing when she got home so it was perfect timing for a nice romantic trip). we do want to go up again though... maybe we will shoot for late september, the trees might start to be changing colors then.

where's cathedral ledge?

i wanted to go up cannon's tram, but it was closed, too cold still i guess (even though it was near 60). the ski museum right next to teh tram was neat though.

we went to woodstock to stay at the woodstock inn and brewery (i like my beer). it was the perfect place for what we wanted... very cozy and romantic and we got a package that included dinner and breakfast.

[runawayjim]

Cathedral Ledge is just down the road from North Conway. Technically it would be west of the center, but I tend to think of it as more "down". Almost anyone in the area will know where it is - near Echo Lake. It's not overwhelmingly tall, but it does overlook the town. Tons of rock climbers there.

Mt Cranmore used to be my favorite back when they had their skimobiles - even though it was a small mountain it was one of the more scenic. But they took those out many years ago now.

my fiancee has family in NH that ski. we usually go to gunstock, mainly because that's her uncle's favorite place. i'm gonna try to get to more mountains next season though. i'd like to make a similar trip that i did this time and hit cannon and loon, they both looked pretty interesting. there's soemthing to be said about some of the smaller mountains. they each have their own niche... i feel that while everyone's going to the big places, it's nice to have a small mountain almost all to yourself. and you can usually get good trails and snow, but at a fraction of the cost of the bigger places.