Although we were planning to spend about 2-3 days in the White Mountains, we pretty much finished what Valerie planned to do on Friday. So, Valerie quickly put together a new plan on Friday night. We’re going to slowly drive down the Connecticut River Byway along the New Hampshire/Vermont border.
Before visiting any touristic sights, we stopped at Wayne’s Mart (attached to a gas station) where Valerie ran in and bought several sandwiches for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Valerie ordered so much food that the cook said that Valerie must be very hungry.)
Our first touristic stop of the day was the Franconia Notch Flume Gorge state park, which usually includes a boardwalk over the gorge. Sadly, the boardwalk was closed due to latent snow, but we were still able to hike along much of the 2 mile loop trail. After our hike, we drove a bit further to The Basin for a picnic lunch along the river/creek.
The ranger at the flume gorge recommended the Lost River Gorge (which just opened that day) since the boardwalk at the state park was closed. Similar to the park, it advertises a boardwalk over a river gorge. While the boardwalk was very nice (somewhat reminiscent of gorge boardwalks in Switzerland), sadly most of the caves at the Lost River Gorge were still closed due to the high water level.
As we continued our drive southbound along the edge of the Connecticut River, we just happened to run into Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. We walked around the campus for a while and then ate the remainder of our sandwiches at one of the park benches on campus.
We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in White River Junction, VT (just across the river from Hanover). The hotel seems to be full of people visiting Dartmouth.
The next morning, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour bakery store in Norwich, VT, where we picked up sandwiches for lunch and other treats. Apparently, the bakers at this store start work at 3:30am. (I’m glad I’m not a baker.)
On the recommendation of our friend Lily, we decided to take an “easy” hike to the Gile Mountain tower. While the hike was not as easy as I might have hoped, the top of the fire tower offered great views of Vermont landscape.
As we continued our drive, we stopped at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Unfortunately, most of the facilities were closed for the weekend, but we were able to eat our sandwiches outside in the gardens. Interestingly, this site has the statue of Robert Gould Shaw that is the counterpart to the plaster cast we saw at the National Gallery of Art in DC.
Valerie’s book indicated that the flagship store of LA Burdick chocolatier is in the tiny town of Walpole, NH. We made a quick detour for some drinking chocolate and mid-day snacks. Nearby, there was an orchard that usually sells cider, but sadly, there was no cider as there were no apples (too early in the season?).
We made a couple more stops along the drive. Valerie couldn’t resist stopping at Northfield Creamie for soft serve after we saw a giant line in front of the building. We also stopped at a super-hipster book store in Montague, MA, that happened to be next to a particularly pretty creek.
We are spending the night in Holiday Inn Express in Hadley, MA.