New England Day 5: Kancamagus Highway, Old Man in the Clouds, Vermont

Wednesday morning started with a delicious breakfast at our hotel. Then we headed to the Kanc Highway for a beautiful day of fall in New Hampshire.

Matthew and Me

Some fall foliage along the Swift River.

The leaves on these trees were really interesting.

The red leaves with the green behind were really pretty.

The Albany Covered Bridge.

Inside the Bridge.

Looking down the Swift River from the Bridge.

Me, Matthew and Megan with the bridge behind us.

Megan and Sarah climbed up to this big log.

Matthew and Me with the bridge (and lots of other people). Cars do drive over it as well.

Megan!

Our next stop was the Lower Falls. We enjoyed walking on rock down to the falls.

Matthew and Me

Megan and Matthew liked building cairns. In fact, if it were up to them, they'd probably still be there building more.

Megan and Matthew with a collection of their cairns.

Big cairn.

Me and U with the Lower Falls behind us.

Panoramic of the Lower Falls.

Megan, Sarah, U and Matthew. Megan and Matthew were building a wall.

Front view of wall.

Another panoramic of the Lower Falls with the family on the left.

Seeing the granite faces surrounded by the trees was quite striking.

Our next stop was Rocky Gorge, where the river narrows through a gorge. They used to cross the river here with a log.

Megan down by the water.

Matthew and U.

The water is calmer coming out of the gorge.

Matthew, Sarah and Megan with the gorge behind them.

A tall tree

Silly sisters!

Sarah taking a little break while waiting for everyone to catch up.

We walked around the Lower Pond.

Megan and Matthew came up with leader rules on the hike around the pond: "The one with the stick keeps an eye on Sarah." How well did it work? Sarah ran around the pond twice while the rest of us walked around it once.

Matthew with some mushrooms.

We loved seeing the fall foliage everywhere.

Megan, U and Matthew at the bottom of Sabbaday Falls. The Falls are quite long and make a right turn on the way down.

The bottom of the falls.

Megan and Matthew point to some of the mushrooms they found.

The middle part of the falls with the family up on the bridge.

Me, Matthew, Megan and Sarah

The rest of Sabbaday Falls.

Sarah and Me

Matthew upstream from Sabbaday Falls.

We were treated to some beautiful fall foliage along our route!

U and Matthew at an overlook.

Top of the road!

A few shots of the scenery on the descent. It is beautiful and the fall colors are striking.

I really love how the granite contrasts with the trees.

Wouldn't this be a fun job? (It is one that is much appreciated!)

Matthew, Megan and Sarah hanging on the Lincoln Woods Suspension Bridge.

U on the bridge.

Monkey Matthew.

Megan, Sarah and Matthew

The suspension bridge.

Local wildlife

Who is behind that leaf? Megan loved collecting leaves!

Once we left the Kanc Highway, it started to get cloudy.

We went to see where Old Man of the Mountain used to be.

Photo of what it looked like.

Using a bunch of steel profiler rods, they recreated Old Man in the Mountain so that when you stand at the marked location, you can see what is looked like. (There are actually multiple of these profiler rods and you choose the one that matches your height.) With the aforementioned fog, what we saw was Old Man in the Clouds.

Matthew liked this bench.

We drove across the border to Vermont which was a new state for everyone but Me.

Nice farmhouse in Vermont.

Back to New Hampshire.

Me and Matthew at the yummy pub, May Kelly's, where we ate dinner.

U, Sarah and Megan

Yummy peach and goat cheese salad

We had a fireplace in our suite.

If you put something too close to the fire, it will burn. (U was trying to dry off his jeans. Me thought she smelled something burning. She was right!)

King bed and twin bed in the room where U, Me and Matthew slept.

Matthew didn't actually need a twin bed. He could just curl up on the stools.

Two twin beds in the front room where Sarah and Megan slept.

This granola is delicious! We enjoyed it each morning at breakfast.

Lovely home with fall colors close to our hotel.

Stream by our hotel. In the spring, it will sometimes swell up to the level of the road.