Laura and I have begun making trips from our home in western Maine to the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. Honestly, I’m not sure why it’s taken us this long. We moved to Maine in 2013 and our first trip to our neighboring state hadn’t occurred until 2018. It’s a shame really because northern New Hampshire has so much to offer, from the quaint, but slightly touristy, town of North Conway to the stunning views of Mount Washington to the many scenic waterfalls and hiking spots along the way. It’s a great area actually; one of my favorites. We’ll be back time and time again and I’ll use this blog to keep you updated on our activities. Please read about our adventure below and then click through my related posts in this category. We visited a number of locales during this trip and the next.
This post is part of a series. Click the links below to view the others:
North Conway, New Hampshire
Zeb’s General Store, North Conway, New Hampshire
The Christmas Loft, North Conway, New Hampshire
I’ve had this destination on my mind for some time now. Like many other folks out there, I tend to do much of my traveling via Google Earth. When I’m not actually in the car driving somewhere nice, I like to use “Street View” to see what an area looks like. I have fun doing this. It gets me out of the house, so to speak.
I’ve been visiting North Conway, New Hampshire through my computer for a while and just the other day, I suggested that we actually head out to the real place. North Conway is approximately two and a half hours from where we live, so it took a lot to get me up and motivated to do something like this. If you aren’t aware, one of my least favorite activities is sitting in the car driving. Can’t stand it. But, for the greater good, I made the trip and was excited about it.
There were two things I wanted to see in this town. First was Zeb’s General Store and the second was The Christmas Loft. Both are situated right there on the main drag, so getting to them wouldn’t be too challenging, once we landed in town. I’ll cover both of these areas in subsequent posts.
I’m always surprised at how places actually are when compared to how they appear on the computer. Usually, an area is very recognizable when compared to a photograph, but because of the wide angle lens Google uses for the mapping program and because of the lack of ability to discern topography, I’m usually pleasantly surprised when we make it somewhere in person. It always looks better.
For the first part of our trip, driving through the White Mountains was utterly beautiful. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We left our house and drove west on Route 2 and then when we arrived in Gorham, NH, we made a left on Route 16 and headed south. We entered the White Mountain National Forest and that’s when the adventure began. Maine was nice and so was New Hampshire, but nothing compared to the size of the White Mountains. Here’s Mount Washington, right at the base of the road that leads to the top. I had to pull over to get some shots of this.
Mount Washington is actually the small peak behind the big one in the front. Here’s a better shot of it. It’s the one with the snow and antenna on it.
Because I’m such a whiz when it comes to photography, I put together a really hard to see panorama of the entire view. I still haven’t figured out a better way at displaying these things.
Once we entered the park, we quickly realized that there was no shortage of beautiful views. I kept wanting to pull over to take them in, but I realized that if we did that, we’d never get anywhere. Time was passing quickly and I wanted to get into town to see what it was all about. Although, I did snap a shot of a tunnel that went under the road, so bikes could pass by without getting hit by cars. I thought that was pretty cool. I kept seeing people ride into this lowered area in the grass and disappear and had to see what it was about.
About a half hour later, we got sucked into another beautiful view, so we were forced to pull over for some more photo opportunities. This is Mount Washington from the south, looking north. Nice, isn’t it? The location is called the Intervale Scenic Vista.
Here’s another panoramic shot from that location.
It’s just so nice.
Jackson, New Hampshire Covered Bridge
After a few hours of walking around and visiting the highlights of North Conway, we decided to leave. After all, we had another two and a half hours of driving to return home, so we wanted to take some photos of the many wonderful things we saw on the way in. During the trip back north, we stopped off at the Jackson, NH covered bridge. This is a big attraction and we definitely had to stop to take some pictures of it.
I should have known there would be a tourist trap on the other side of the bridge. Yes, another general store. This one was called Flossie’s and it was very cute. Unfortunately, the owner didn’t want us to take photos of the inside, so I only have two from the outside to show you.
The entire area is so beautiful. I haven’t ever spent any time in New Hampshire, so I was pleased. It’s a great state and I look very much forward to exploring it further in the future.
The next section will be very brief. On the way back home from this trip, we stopped off at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine (just east of the White Mountains). It’s a wealthy area and it’s worth the stop. I took some photos of the outside of the hotel and a few other random things. Until then – thanks for reading!
Visiting the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine
One of my favorite pastimes is to travel around and visit different hotels and inns. Most of the inns I’ve seen and learned about have been located somewhere in New England. My favorites to date are the Blantyre in Lenox, MA, the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge and the Spring House Hotel on Block Island, RI. Click on those links I just shared. I think you’ll be pleased with what you’ll find. Those inns are huge and wonderful and beautiful all in one. If I had to pick one to run away and retire to, it would have to be Blantyre. It just suits me well.
I may have to add another great inn to my list, but I’m not sure about it yet. On the way home from our recent visit to North Conway, NH, we stopped off in Bethel, Maine. I’ve been eyeing this town since we moved to Maine from Florida. It’s out there in the middle of nowhere and it’s got lots of money. I simply don’t know what’s not attractive about that.
The town of Bethel is somewhat built around the Bethel Inn Resort. There’s the inn and then a town green with a gazebo in it right next door. There are tree lined streets with old houses that are in nearly perfect condition. Main Street has restaurants situated on it and there’s pretty much everything else a small town offers nearby. Bethel is an out of the way, exciting place. I just wish it wasn’t two hours away from where we live.
While we were there, we decided to take some photos. This isn’t unusual for us. We did visit the inside of the inn, but it was so quiet that I felt strange about taking pictures. I will tell you that it was very nice. The word “elegant” comes to mind. It’s upscale and much more than what I was expecting. I didn’t know if it was going to be a country inn where everyone goes to kick back and relax or an exclusive one where only those who are “in” go to spend their days. I’m still not sure about which one it is, but when I find out, I’ll tell you.
Here’s the front of the building. Don’t worry, this isn’t all. It’s actaully quite expansive.
As I said, there’s a green and a gazebo near the inn. I took a photo of the gazebo for you. Everyone loves gazebos.
Toward the center of the green was a fountain. I admit that I had a bit too much fun taking photos of the water. I’ll summarize all that fun with just a photo or two.
Finally, this is the fountain farther away. This image shows the corner of the green.
That’s about it. It was a quick stop. We almost ate dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the hotel, but decided not to. We instead ate at Sunday River Brewery. That was a great place.
If we make it back to Bethel, you can count on many more photos. As I said, it’s a pleasant town and I wouldn’t mind exploring it some more.
To Sweden, Maine, North Conway & Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
October 15, 2019
This is the second part of this post. Laura and I visited New Hampshire once again and I took more photos. This time, we went the long way around.
This past Sunday, Laura and I took a long drive through the hills of western Maine and into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I knew the drive would be long as I planned it that way. Due to the autumn weather being rainy, then sunny, and then rainy again, we only had the day to enjoy the peak foliage that both of these New England states offered. And let me tell you, when they say “peak,” they mean peak. We went out for our road trip during peak colors. The trees were bright yellow, orange and red and the sky was perfectly clear. Well, at the end of the day it was sunny. There was some cloud cover during the morning hours.
The plan was to drive straight to Pietree Orchards in Sweden, Maine and then over the mountains into North Conway, New Hampshire. We left bright and early so we’d make it to all of our destinations without running out of steam.
The first leg of our trip went well. We were making good time until we were stopped by a policeman standing in the middle of the street. He was directing a detour because there was a running race going on. We were directed to travel on some alternate roads to make it to the orchard, which was only a few miles away. We were so close and after getting slightly lost driving around a pond, we finally made it. Believe it or not, that little detour cost us at least half an hour. I guess that’s what you get for not knowing the roads. The people directing us seemed to know the roads rather well though. They kept telling us where to go, but we couldn’t understand their accents half the time. Ah, Maine. I do love you.
The orchard was packed. I’ll tell you, for a place that’s truly out in the middle of nowhere, it sure was popular. We parked the car and walked around a bit. Here’s a photo of some apples inside the store.
We didn’t actually go apple picking. We primarily focused on taking some photos of the area. This particular orchard offers some wonderful views of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. But f course, I had to snap some pictures of the apples on the trees. This first one is a regular ol’ apple pic.
This next photo is a tad more special. It’s of a cluster of McIntosh red apples, but it’s actually three photos in one, merged together to create an HDR photo.
I used this HDR (High Dynamic Range) trick for a few different scenes at this orchard. Because there was such a contrast between the bright sky and the much darker land, my camera either washed out or darkened too much of each image. By capturing three different shots; one too dark, one just right, and one too bright, I was able to get the best of all worlds and merge them together.
This is an HDR image of the White Mountains. I was looking west and the scene was framed by some apple trees. I’d say this was the money shot.
Here’s another picture for you. I saw these leaves as we were walking around eating apples that we lifted from the trees. It’s a small plant that was situated near a stone wall.
These are just a few more classic signs from a pick-your-own apple orchard.
Great orchard. It’s beautiful and the apples were delicious. They were extraordinarily crunchy and sweet.
As we were walking back to the car, we spotted this awesome looking 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass Custom convertible. Take a look at these photos of it. I jazzed them up in Photoshop as well.
After we left the orchard, we began making our way toward New Hampshire. We drove through a few small towns and ultimately to Fryeburg. I will tell you this – there is nothing so beautiful as northern New England in the middle of autumn. Nothing at all. If the sun is shining and the air is warm, it makes the falling leaves and the colors on the trees all that more sweet. We had a wonderful ride to the edge of Maine.
One of the most enjoyable legs of our trip came as we began crossing the mountains from western Maine into New Hampshire. I believe what we traveled over was named Hurricane Mountain Road. I’m not sure about that though. It’s slightly north of Fryeburg and east of North Conway. Beautiful paved road. Here are some photos we pulled over to take. There was no shortage of photo ops.
We’re going to be making another trip to the area soon because there were just so many places to stop to photograph. It pained me to drive right by without pulling over at so many of them. It also pained me to drive by small parking areas where others had parked to go hiking. There were so many folks out for the Columbus Day weekend and they were enjoying themselves so much. Next time. I keep telling myself that. It’s perfect to have all of this right in our back yard.
The real goal was to drive down into North Conway and then drive north and then west toward Crawford Notch. This area is dead-center in the middle of the mountains and is nothing short of remarkable. There’s a small pond in the area and it’s nearly surrounded by very steep mountains. Take a look at these photos.
Beautiful, right?
We drove around so much and saw so many things. The last area I’d like to show you is of the Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. I’ve wanted to see this resort for the longest time and I finally saw it. Next time, we’ll either stay over for a night or two or at least walk around to see the inside. As it was, we were running out of time.
I’m grateful to have experienced northern New Hampshire twice now. I’d like to go back to see what the Christmas season is like and again, as I said, for the hiking. It’s a wonderful state and it may just be one of the prettiest in the union. Thanks for reading!
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