our first order of business in the white mountains of new hampshire was the flume gorge in franconia notch state park. it was sort of similar to the ausable chasm hike we had gone on in the adirondacks, both in expense ($$$$) and length and strenuousness. and since that hike was a raging success amongst the younger lidboms, we figured duplicating it was a good place to start.
this hike took us a lot closer to the action than the ausable chasm hike. the boardwalk was right next to the water and crossed over it several times along the way.
before long, we arrived at the main attraction, a huge waterfall that sprayed mist over the hikers climbing the nearby staircase.
we regrouped at the top and took in the view of the waterfall from an overlook, which was impossible to fit into one photo from my vantage point. 🙂
the rest of the hike was decidedly less exciting. mostly just a trail in the woods, bringing us back to the start, with a few points of interest.
lots of mossy rock piles and formations. we had some drama at one such location. the photo below on the right was taken at the entrance of a small cave/tunnel we could crawl through to get to a spot further up the trail. always game for an adventure, the girls and i attempted it. at the end, we had to squeeeeeze through a very small passage up and between some rocks. and there was a nasty puddle we wished to avoid, complicating matters. once we had reached a point of no return, there was a slight meltdown for the smallest lidkid, but we yanked her through and everything was all good. except for my blood pressure.
a pedestrian covered bridge was the last cool amenity on the hike. it has a cool history, but i forget any details of said history. 🙂
the trail is a one way loop, and once you reach the start and exit to the visitor center, you cannot re-enter. i seriously contemplated doing it all again by myself because its really hard to properly enjoy dangerous trails while in the company of tiny people that i would like to keep alive and safe. but it was too long to expect folks to wait for me, so we exited, bought all of our commemmorative souvenirs and departed for our next adventure.
we ate our packed lunches at a picnic area off the main road through franconia notch. and then convinced the kids to check out another part of the park called “the basin”….
the trail to the basin is really short. more of a walking path, really. and its a really cool area where the water has carved out the rock into smooth, swirly, fun formations. there were TONS of people, an spots to swim and hang out. it was really cool.
we had big plans to hike up along the cascades trail that fed into the basin, but it was so muddy and hard to find the trail and we all fizzled out after not very long. it was basically various views like this along the way…
all in all. an excellent first day in new hampshire.
and since our second day was super uneventful, i’ll add it to this post. the weather was supposed to be spotty. and i had promised the kids a day of just hanging at the resort. swimming and such. so. that’s just what we did. a lot of swimming for them. reading for me. and general laziness around the resort. derek went out and did some local tourist shopping. and we we were rested up for fun and mayhem the next day.
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