The Kancamagus Scenic Byway Lived Up To It’s Billing!

34 miles of color and we did not get tired or seeing it. 230 pics later and I don't even know where to start today…so I chose the road map that we followed. I will attempt to be choosy with the pics include, but please come visit and I'll show you the whole collection. Wynn and I kept exclaiming around every corner how beautiful it was. We loved the layers of green grass, bright colored trees, a muted line further up and then a dark evergreen line or rock line on the mountains above. We loved the layering.
We started our daily adventure at the Ranger Station in Conley, NH. We were at the Saco River and could see the first covered bridge before we entered the Park. The Saco Covered bridge is seen here.

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The next highlight came at mile marker 6.1 -The Albany Covered Bridge. This bridged the Swift River. We pulled into the parking lot with not 1 but 2 tour buses. Reminded us of Israel when Micky, our tour guide would tell us we needed to leave early to beat the enemy buses!

At marker 6.8 we saw and hiked around the lower falls. We were happy to have our hiking sticks. Wynn had to get a new one (it has Acadia Nat'l Park on it) He snapped his other one in two around Jordan Pond when he tried to let a couple pass and his stick got caught between rocks and he went down. We had much better luck this day!

Mile marker 9.0 marks the Rocky Gorge - a beautiful flume and falls. We walked around this too and took many pics. Here's a selection…

While we were at this gorge, we took a hike back in on Lovequist Trail to Fall's Pond. The reflection of the trees on the water really was breath taking!

Mile Marker 12.5 was the exit for Russell-Colbath Historic House and Barn. We had decided not to stop here but as we were driving by, I saw the barn from the photo and snapped a pic of it as we drove by. It reminded me of looking for the famous barn in the Grand Tetons with Karen, my sis-in-law a few years back. I think my pic looked as good as the one on the website!

Then we loaded back up in the van and drove to Mile marker 15.4 to see Sabbaday Falls. We hiked up and down the path for another .6 miles to see the waterfall and emerald pool. There were a few more “enemies” here so we kept moving as we could.

The last pic above made me laugh because he stood there for several minutes trying to figure out how to get back down from a rock he had climbed for a pic. I know this is what I look like too! Wynn is just too kind to take a pic of me…lol
Now we have a few pics from overlooks. It is far less vibrant than seeing the real thing but I hope it gives you an idea of what vastness we saw as we looked up at the mountainsides.

17.3- Sugar Hill, 21.8 CL Graham Overlook, 21.9 Pemi Overlook, 23.3 Unnamed Overlook( yes, that's really what it is called), and 23.8 Hancock Overlook. Enjoy the beauty…

Then we went to mile marker 27 to visit the Otter Rocks. Now we definitely did not see any otters. I tried to become one by slipping on the rocks after getting my pics, but no harm, no foul and not even a booboo!

Lincoln Woods was our last stop at Mile 30.0. Here we saw a suspension bridge and walked across to see the views of the river.

We finished the 34 miles and our ride on the Kancamagus was complete. We finished around noon and we had a short drive to the Flume Gorge which was located in a state park. We had 2:00 tickets for the hike as they tried to limit how many people walked the gorge at the same time. This was a fairly strenuous walk for us. It was 2.1 miles and it took us about 90 minutes to complete. There were a lot of ups and downs and stairs. The pics are a mix between the flume waterfalls and settling pools. It was gorgeous and powerful!

Ok, maybe I got a little carried away with the last set of pics, but there are a lot more where those came from. We finished the hike and had a little ice cream to celebrate coming out alive. No pics here as I don't want to incriminate myself. We then pulled up the atlas as we had no GPS service for awhile. I think we did pretty good navigating the old fashioned way. We drove out of New Hampshire and into Vermont. We are spending the night in Stowe at a place called the Golden Eagle resort. The town was crazy busy and I don't know exactly what all was going on but we were ready for our room and calling it a night. We did have some disappointing news tonight…we were going to visit Ben and Jerry's tomorrow and found out they are not giving tours because of the dreaded Covid AND their scoop shop is closed on Wednesdays. Oh my, the pain of it all! So Wynn looked up some other stuff to do and I will write about that tomorrow night. What a fun-filled glorious day. More adventures to come tomorrow! Enjoy the last couple of pics from the drive tonight!

The last one is for Scott!