11.19.07
New Hampshire
This weekend, we took a roundtrip into New Hampshire.
From Burlington, we took the interstate to Montepelier, where we went onto Route 302.
This took us to Barre, where we saw a few very interesting sculptures along the road. Defnitely a place to check out further.
After Barre, we drove on along route 302 into New Hampshire.
In Bath, NH we saw an old covered bridge along the road that we just had to cross. It was quite long and a bit scary to cross the first time. On the other side we found out it was built in 1832.
Of course, we had to cross back to continue our journey, though that wasn’t as freaky as the first time.
From Bath, our trip took us through Lisbon on the way to Littleton, where we spent about an hour trying to find GG Allin’s grave in St. Rose Cemetery. His grave was covered in broken bottles and what seemed to be a small pile of human excrement.
After Littleton, the trip took us south past Franconia along I-93 to the Indian Head resort near Lincoln.
The view of this face in profile in the side of the mountain was very nice, especially when the sun was starting to go down a bit.
On the way back north to Franconia, we saw the “Sleeping Dog”. That’s not the official name of the mountain range, but it really looked like it. We took a small detour to watch the Mt. Washington hotel at night. It looked really nice all lit up.
After that, we checked in at Hillwinds Lodge in Franconia, had dinner, went to a store for a 12-pack of beer and spent the remainder of the evening just hanging out in the motel room with beer + music.
The next morning after breakfast, we went south into the Franconia Notch state park, where we stopped at regular intervals for more scenic views. We visited ‘the basin‘, a pothole that was eroded at the end of the last ice age. It looked really nice with the landscape mostly covered in a layer of snow.
From there, we went south to Lincoln, where we went onto route 112, also called the Kancamagus Highway. This scenic route took us all the way to Conway, with frequent stops along the way, most notably at Rocky Gorge. Some wild turkeys accentuated the scenic beauty of this route.
After a nice mexican lunch at Cafe Noche in Conway, we traveled up north along route 16 towards route 302 (a familiar number by now). After traveling through Crawford Notch, we stopped at Willey House for some more pictures. Unfortunately, the area looked to be closed down for the winter. Even all signs had been removed (except for a sign about black bears).
Shortly after Willey House, the trip was completed by a sudden moose sighting. After quickly turning around the car and backtracking a short bit, we were treated with a great view of a young female moose standing along the road before disappearing back into the forest.
The last stop on the trip was back at Mt. Washington for some pictures of the mountains lit up by the setting sun. After that, we took Route 302 back towards Barre, VT (with a mandatory two way trip over the covered bridge at Bath). From Barre, we took I-89 back to the Burlington area. Just before getting back to Burlington, a couple of meteors from the Leonid meteor swarm gave the trip a final finishing touch.
Overall, the trip into New Hampshire was definitely worth our time. I really enjoyed the trip, the scenery was stunning and the moose sighting just completed the whole package.
Pictures to follow, once I get around to editing them.
Tags:bath, covered bridge, gg allin, indian head, kancamagus highway, littleton, moose, mt. washington, new hampshire, rocky gorge, the basin, vacation, willey house