Montpelier, VT
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Our day started in Conway, New Hampshire at The Beach Campground. We didn’t hang around long this morning as we wanted to get an early start in seeing the White Mountains National Forest via the scenic Kancamagus Highway — a 34-mile scenic drive along New Hampshire’s Highway 112. The Kanc, as it is nicknamed by locals, is known as one of the best places in the country to see autumn leaves changing colors. This section of highway runs east to west from Conway, NH to the town of Lincoln, NH. Andi downloaded an audio tour from Guide Along, the same company we use to learn about national parks, so we’d have commentary during our drive today.
Before our scenic drive began, we made a stop at Home Depot in Conway to pick up a new vacuum for the RV. Yesterday, I mentioned to Andi that it’d be nice to have a vacuum to suck up all the dirt and rocks we track inside from our campsites. By this morning, he found a perfect handheld vacuum with a floor attachment that uses the same battery as his Dewalt drill. The vacuum was in stock and ready for pickup this morning.
All the parking areas along the Kancamagus Highway require a recreational parking pass which can be purchased at the White Mountains National Forest ranger station just outside of Conway, or from a self-serve paybox available in each parking lot. Fortunately for us, Aden’s 4th grade “Every Kid in a Park” national park pass covered this. It also happened to be “Free National Public Lands Day” in the USA so all national parks & related sites were free to visit today.
We decided to leave our RV parked in the Home Depot parking lot while exploring in the Jeep today. Our first stop on the Kancamagus Highway driving tour was the Albany Covered Bridge that we visited yesterday. We drove through it again, but kept on going since we spent some time walking around there yesterday. The four of us got a big chuckle from the signage and commentary in our Guide Along audio tour warning travelers that there was no fuel or services for the next 34-mile stretch of highway. No services for 34 miles? Would we make it??
Next stop on the driving tour was Lower Falls Scenic Area on the Swift River. This was a gorgeous spot with shimmering metallic boulders lining both sides of the river. We practically had the place to ourselves this morning as it was still pretty early on Saturday morning. Andi and Aden climbed around the boulders while Tory tried to build a dam in one of the shallow pools. The air temperature was colder outside than we expected this morning, so we didn’t hang around for more than 15-20 minutes.
Back in the Jeep, we continued along the highway to the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area. This was another spot where glaciers carved their way through the silvery-colored bedrock leaving a place for the Swift River to flow through. The rocks were gorgeous in this area of New Hampshire. The gray color glistened in the daylight.
There was more of a steep drop-off into the river at this spot so not as much room to climb around and explore. Nevertheless, Tory and Aden kept themselves busy chasing after one another before Aden finally collapsed on a park bench to catch his breath.
We also visited the Russell Colbath House, an old homestead built in the early 1830’s. Early settlers of the White Mountains farmed and logged this area, and times were really tough for them. Interpretive signage scattered throughout the property told stories of past residents. We walked through a cemetery on the property with gravestones dating back to the early 1800’s. There’s so much history on the eastern side of the United States; some of the towns we’ve visited are even older than the country itself.
Halfway through our drive along the Kancamagus Highway, we reached Sabbaday Falls. This is one of the most popular stops along the route for good reason — at the end of a short 10-minute climb up the hillside, there’s a 45-foot waterfall to see. Parking was tight in this small parking lot already at 10:00am; I can’t imagine what it’s like to visit this area during the prime leaf-viewing time. Fortunately we were driving the Jeep so we just made our own parking spot by pulling onto the side of the lot.
Tory and Aden weren’t too excited about “hiking,” but the trail was more of an inclined walk into the woods. At the end of the trail we saw a beautiful waterfall cascading down the surrounding rocks. Tory wasn’t very impressed. “That’s the biggest waterfall in New Hampshire?” she said. “I guess it isn’t a very big state.”
It was pretty though, especially the way the falls turned at a 90-degree angle to continue down the mountain.
Our last stop on the Kancamagus Highway was Sugar Hill Scenic Overlook. There was a nice view of the mountains in the distance here, and the autumn color of the trees just starting to turn. Andi and I agreed, we’re probably visiting New Hampshire about two weeks before the true show of fall colors. That’s Ok though, it was still a very pretty view.
There was another overlook on the other side of the highway offering views of the northern side of White Mountains National Forest, but we decided to skip this one. As we made our way closer to the town of Lincoln, we were amazed just how much traffic we started to see. One of the trailheads outside the town of Lincoln had to have had at least 50 cars parked at it. Vehicles filled the parking area and overflowed onto the sides of the highway.
We made our way into the small town of North Woodstock, New Hampshire in search of a place to have lunch. The charming Main Street had quite a few stores, restaurants, and ice cream shops but most of it looked closed. Andi and I gravitated toward a big white building called Woodstock Inn, surrounded by flowers and a big wrap-around patio. We were seated for lunch without a wait.
Our server provided us with excellent service which was a bit of a surprise given how unorganized the rest of the patio service seemed. Andi ordered a fish sandwich for his meal, I had fish tacos, and Aden got his usual chicken tenders. Tory spiced things up today by ordering a cheese quesadilla.
We concluded our time in this tiny town with a visit to North Woodstock Pie & Coffee. Andi ordered himself a coffee, got the kids both hot chocolates, and a hot tea for me. He also ordered a slice of blueberry pie — I think the sign outside advertising “best pie in New Hampshire” convinced him.
From Woodstock, we drove back to Conway to pick up our RV. Unfortunately, we had to do about an hour of backtracking on the Kancamagus Highway. We decided it was worth the extra time to be able to tour the scenic highway in a car, giving us the ability to stop as we wanted and park in the small scenic area parking lots. Once we returned to Home Depot in Conway (where the RV was parked), we re-hooked the Jeep and set off again. This time, our final destination was Montpelier, Vermont.
Andi complained that his stomach was hurting and threw up before we got on the road again. He thinks the fish sandwich he ate for lunch was bad. Ugh!
Our second time driving along the Kancamagus Highway was much busier. Andi and I couldn’t believe how full of cars the same parking areas we’ve visited this morning were. Each hiking trailhead had at least 50-100 cars parked around it. We were so glad we got up early and viewed the scenic areas along the highway before all the crowds arrived.
This time we followed the northern side of Mt. Lafayette, the highest mountain in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, on Highway 302. We passed through the towns of Bethlehem and St. Johnsbury before crossing the state border into Vermont. At times, I wondered if our RV was going to make it up the steep mountain roads! There wasn’t a lot of twists and turns to the roads; just straight road grades up and down.
Andi arranged for us to stay at a sugar house, also known as a maple syrup farm, in East Montpelier, Vermont tonight. We arrived to Bragg’s Farm around 5:30pm — just enough time to check in with the store owner and buy a few goodies from the gift shop.
As part of a program we belong to called Harvest Host / Boondockers Welcome, RVers are welcome to camp for free at various businesses and farms in exchange for patronizing the store. Andi may have gone a little nuts in this one! He bought three maple creemees for he, Aden, and Tory to eat. A creemee is Vermont’s version of self-serve ice cream. He also bought some truffles, maple-flavored hard candy, apple cider, and apple cider donuts to enjoy tomorrow morning. This farm was an idyllic place to stay for the night, surrounded by trees and farmland. Bragg’s also has two miniature horses, rabbits, and goats for the kids to feed and play with. Tory and Aden were all about the animals.
There’s one other family camping at Bragg’s Farm tonight. Andi and Aden introduced themselves and Aden is hoping to play with the little boy tomorrow before we head off to our next location.
The four of us concluded our night watching the last quarter of the Nebraska Football game on television in the RV. I’m exhausted after a stressful week concerning my parents. Happy to be staying in a quiet place tonight so we hopefully all sleep well. Tomorrow, our plan is to drive further north to the Waterbury/Stowe area of Vermont.
