White Mountains Windshield Tour

Today we slept late and had a late brunch. Then we struck out to reconnoiter these parts of the White Mountain National Forest. We drove east on Route 302 and found ourselves at the base of Mt. Washington and the station for the Mt. Washington Cog Railway. The Cog first summited Mt. Washington in 1869. The average grade of its ascent is 25%, and it achieves 37% at its steepest point. Tickets are $59 each, so we elected to pass on a train ride. I rode the Cog in 1986, and Dorcas didn't feel strongly about it. We did hang around the station for a while and watched the trains depart. The engines are specially designed for this hill and the boilers are tilted forward about 30 degrees so that they are nearly level while pushing the car up the hill. They put out a lot of coal smoke. The folks back at DAQ would be appalled.

We continued on Route 302 and found ourselves in Bartlett, NH. There we found wi-fi at the public library at Josiah Bartlett Elementary School. In TV's "The West Wing" Martin Sheen played President Josiah Bartlet, from a small town in New Hampshire, who was a direct descendant of the real-life Josiah Bartlett, a New Hampshire signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Fact meets fiction in the shadow of the Presidential Range. After checking our e-mail and conducting other internet chores, we left Bartlett and cut over on the Bear Notch Road to Route 112, the "Kancamagus Highway". The "Kank" is a very scenic road that runs about 34 miles from Lincoln to Conway through a very undeveloped section in the heart of the White Mountain NF. We had been told that this was prime moose habitat, but we couldn't find Bullwinkle. Leaving the "Kank" we drove north through Franconia Notch State Park just as it was getting dark and closed the loop on our circuit drive through the White Mountains.

At many of the trailheads and other parking areas the National Forest charges a parking fee. This is not unique to the WMNF, but it is more prevalent here than I can recall in other NFs we have visited recently. On the up-side, the money appears to be wisely spent. The parking areas and overlooks were paved and had ample space. The NF also had a large number of very nice interpretive displays.

The fall foliage is splendid. It has probably peaked for this area, although with the warm temperatures and dry summer, it is not as colorful peak as other years.