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Old 21 Jul 19, 12:12 PM  
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anji
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Road Trip round New England in the Spring, not the Fall! Day 7 - Kancamagus Hway and Flume Gorge

Road Trip round New England in the Spring, not the Fall! Day 7 – Kancamagus Hway, Flume Gorge

Photo overload! Today we were to drive the Kancamagus Highway, known as the Kanc, through wonderful scenery and visit Flume Gorge and Franconia Notch State Park.

After another yummy breakfast – stuffed French toast, sausage and maple syrup by Nellie – and conversation with the other guests (who all seemed to be checking out today) we set off on the road. The Kanc is about 30 miles long and is a spectacular drive from Conway to Lincoln/North Woodstock, east to west.

We found all the roads in New Hampshire to be in such great condition. Maine and Vermont, either side, definitely hadn’t put as much into their road surfaces! There were also very few cars to get stuck behind or have on our tails. There were quite a few roadworks on the trip, with the traffic operated by flag people. These always seemed to be older men with beards or a woman – we dubbed them ‘beard or babe?’ as we approached them! We did see one lucky woman driving a dumper truck at one point!

There are many stopping off places and we decided to do the ones on the right on the way there and the others on the way back, for ease. We headed south for a few miles down to the town of Conway and then turned right to join the Kanc.

First stop off was the Rocky Gorge Scenic area. This was such an atmospheric place – a bridge, waterfalls, smooth rocks, trees across the river and some really great old photos on the information boards. I loved how the rocks had been smoothed by the water over the years when the river was in full flow.


I’d highly recommend this drive as it was just beautiful. Although not the fall season it was just as colourful with different shades of green. The advantage of there being slightly less leaves on the trees was that you could see more!


After stopping off at various places en route – waterfalls and great views – we finished up in the town of North Woodstock. This was a typical New Hampshire small town – clapboard houses, white churches, general stores and cafes. We parked easily on the street went to Peg’s café for lunch. Peg’s was brilliant – great people and prices, also great food!

After lunch we went into Fodden’s General Store. I just LOVE these general stores – you can buy absolutely anything from the usual to the downright weird! We opted for some local jam for Mum and a few postcards to send home.


Back in the car and off to Franconia Notch State Park. This is where Flume Gorge is. I’d been really looking forward to this as I’d seen lots of photos of the trail. There was a comprehensive entrance building with tons of information and artefacts. Also a water bottle filling point, which we definitely needed as it was very warm by now!


We set off on the trail, which was well marked and had lots of information to follow on your map. There are many huge glacial boulders which were deposited thousands of years ago. There is a boardwalk through the actual gorge with steps in some places along the steepest parts.


The water flowing and the green steep sides were just beautiful. I loved seeing everywhere how nature had found a way – from new trees growing from a horizontal branch to lichen and ferns grasping on where then could.


After the boardwalk the trail goes through forests, where we found wild orchids (I’m a big orchid fan!), a covered bridge, a bear cave which still had snow in it (no bears!) and more beautiful views.

I’d read about the blackfly that were prevalent in these areas and there were one or two about but they didn’t bother us at all. As it was early in the season I really wouldn’t have liked to be around them when they did their 2-week swarming as they were big!

In total we were there for a couple of hours and stopped for a coffee on the way out and looked round the Visitor Center some more. Definitely a lovely place to visit.

From here we went to Sabbaday Falls. This was another trail through the forest to thundering waterfalls. There was a wonderful rainbow effect at one of them.


Then, in the middle of nowhere, there was a man with a huge snake, which he had put over the shoulders of a woman visitor and was taking her photo. Obviously he expected payment! We just took a photo of the two of them and bypassed him. I’d have happily held the snake but thought it was a bit of a cheek!


In the car park we saw we were parked next to a car with a cat driving! The owner waver her paw at us!


We drove back south from here and saw an Ice Cream café at the side of the road in Lincoln, called Ice Cream Delights. This was obviously a popular local place as it was really busy – good sign! I had a Cappucino Crunch cone – coffee ice cream, toffee small pieces and shards of dark chocolate. I asked for one scoop. I thought she was never going to stop adding the ice cream and then she just turned it all upside down into a dish and gave it to me with a spoon. Good move! Can honestly say it was one of the best I’ve ever tasted. Will had vanilla – like he always does! We sat outside in the sun to eat them. Lovely.


We filled up with petrol when we went back to North Conway and walked down into town. We had a look round the Scenic Railway station and trains. Will was sorry that we had no time to take one of the trips, but agreed the cog railway was far better!

We had a look round the shops, including Zeb’s general store. Fascinating shop - I do love looking at the crazy names of the hot sauces!


In the evening we drove again to the Muddy Moose. This time it was much quieter and we were shown to our table straight away. This was a sports bar too with screens. I asked if they were going to show the final episode of Game of Thrones tonight. Sadly not.

After dinner we went back to the Lodge. We were the only people staying in the actual house tonight, although there were people in the cottages. So we sat in the dark downstairs in the communal room and watched Game of Thrones on our tablet with some beers and crisps – small screen but effective! Really glad we got to watch it and it was really atmospheric the way we did it.

This finished at 10pm and we headed up to bed – the most comfortable of our whole trip. I’d loved our time here and was sad to be leaving the next day for Stowe.

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Edited at 12:25 PM.
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Old 21 Jul 19, 02:40 PM  
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CrispyA
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Sounds like a good day. We thought this part of the USA was lovely wand would like to go back and explore more. Glad you got to watch Thrones!
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Old 21 Jul 19, 03:48 PM  
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anji
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Originally Posted by CrispyA View Post
Sounds like a good day. We thought this part of the USA was lovely wand would like to go back and explore more. Glad you got to watch Thrones!
Us too! Just loved the area. Also glad about Thrones - would have been beside myself not to see it live as I just KNOW we'd have found out what happened otherwise!
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Old 21 Jul 19, 07:18 PM  
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What a lovely day! Such beautiful scenery!
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Old 21 Jul 19, 08:16 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Stunning . Just stunning. Am lapping up the gorgeous pics. Is that the covered bridge in Beetlejuice? What a wonderful day.
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Old 22 Jul 19, 12:17 AM  
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anji
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Stunning . Just stunning. Am lapping up the gorgeous pics. Is that the covered bridge in Beetlejuice? What a wonderful day.
I looked up the Beetlejuice bridge and that was in Vermont, so no. I loved all the covered bridges.
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Old 25 Jul 19, 03:48 PM  
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Such beautiful photos of everything it all looks stunning! Would love tonhave seen your stuffed french toast mmmmmm... the ice cream looks good too! What a fantastic day.
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