This pretty much describes yesterday as my father Mike and I hiked the Flume Gorge and toured the White Mountains. We left the North End in Boston at around 9am to make our way up to Franconia Notch State Park (Franconia, NH) where the Flume Gorge is located. The weather was magnificent! It was no warmer then 84 degrees the entire day.
The entire hike through the Flume and back to the visitor center is 2 miles (3.2km) and took approx 1.5 hours. Along the trail, we were able to enjoy sights such as:
- Glacial Boulders: Some are quite large, weighing over 300 tons.
- The Flume Covered Bridge: Its one of the oldest in the state (built in the 1800s)
- Table Rock: A large outcropping that has been exposed over time by the rushing waters of Flume Brook.
- The Flume: This was the main attraction. Discovered in 1808, the Flume is a natural gorge extending 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty. The walls of Conway granite rise to a height of 70 to 90 feet and are 12 to 20 feet apart.
- Avalanche Falls: This is a 45-foot waterfall that serves as the main entry point where the Flume brook enters the gorge.
- Liberty Gorge and Cascades
- Sentinel Pine Bridge and Pool: This part of the hike was breathtaking. The pool is a deep basin in the Pemigewasset River. It was formed at the end of the ice age, 14,000 years ago, by a silt-laden stream flowing from the glacier. On the high cliff, above the pool, Sentinel pine stood for centuries. It was one of the largest in New Hampshire, nearly 175 high, with a circumference of 16 feet. The hurricane of September, 1938 uprooted the giant pine whose trunk bridges the river above the Pool and forms the base of the covered bridge.
- Wolf’s Den: This is a cave, right after the Sentinel Pine Bridge. Its narrow one way path involved crawling on your hands and knees and squeezing through rocks! I am surprised my ass did not get wedged between this narrow passage!
BALLSY CHIPMUNKS
One of the memorable moments of the hike involved a ballsy little chipmunk that seemed to have no fear of humans (in fact, all of the chipmunks along the trail seemed to regard us with very little or passing interest). This little guy would come very close to where I was sitting along the trail, I imagine looking for food (I feed him some carrots that we brought with us). I was able to capture some neat video footage of him. Its a 16mb file, so only click on the following link if you have a high speed connection:
>>Watch the Ballsy Chipmunk in Action
and a Moose…….
After we completed our hike of the Flume Gorge, I decided to take my father for a drive through a section of the White Mountains, via Route 302 East, which passes the historic Bretton Woods Resort, the Eisenhower Memorial Wayside Park, and a number of beautiful falls. While on Route 3N heading towards Twin Mountain, NH we saw ahead of us a number of cars parked on either side of the road. When we investigated the reason, we were blown away to see a Moose grazing on the side of the road. What a fantastic animal. Obviously, we snapped some pics and took some video footage. Check out the short clip below:
We ended the day having seafood at Walter’s Basin, a restaurant located on Squam Lake (otherwise known as Golden Pond). During our time in the car, we both enjoyed Garrison Keillor’s audio-book of Lake Wobegon Summer 1956. What a perfect day!
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