New Hampshire/Vermont

After visiting the Cooper's again in Portland (& having a monster brunch before leaving the campground), we drove up to Gorham, New Hampshire. This place is located close to Mount Washington and was another beautiful spot. We knew it was a late fall but felt that since this place was in the far northern part of the state, we would find some fall color. Well, we did, but just barely. The weather was perfect for hiking though and we got in several nice hikes. By the time we left for Vermont, there was plenty of color!

We had lunch at this resort while looking for fall color. This is the Balsams resort, a rather "upscale" place. Also located in Dixville Notch where the first votes are cast in a national election.

Above and below, some of the more interesting waterfalls we hiked around while on the trails in the area.

Cindy and Bob at the top of the Imp Face Trail which overlooks the Presidential Range, which includes Mt. Washington. Another nice 7 mile hike with 2000 feet in elevation gain.

One thing New England is famous for is covered bridges, most of them are very well preserved but a few look ready to fall into the river. These are a couple of the longer ones. You could spend a week just driving around looking and photographing them.

As I said, the fall color was late this year, but we managed to find some beautiful places along the trails.

So we left N. Hampshire and drove over to a campground just south of Montpelier, Vermont. From there, we began to hit some rainy weather, but we did do some "Vermont" kind of things like visiting a sugar house where they make maple syrup, Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory in Waterberry, Stowe (which was a real tourist trap), and a tour of a granite quarry (Rock of Ages). But we also did a couple of great hikes too.

But our luck of having mostly good weather ran out when the rain and floods began to hit the New England area. After 3 days we gave up and left to see son John in Pennsylvania. On the way, we stopped over at Saratoga, New York to visit the battlefield that changed the course of the Revolutionary War in 1777. Very educational.