{"id":737,"date":"2011-08-11T08:20:49","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T08:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=737"},"modified":"2011-08-11T08:20:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T08:20:49","slug":"2011-vacation-day-twelve-franconia-notch-and-white-mountains-national-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2011\/08\/11\/2011-vacation-day-twelve-franconia-notch-and-white-mountains-national-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Vacation: Day Twelve: Franconia Notch and White Mountains National Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Entrance<\/a>
Entrance to the Flume Gorge, Near Lincoln, NH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The weather didn’t cooperate with us much today. \u00a0I ran a few miles toward the entrance to Franconia Notch State Park in the morning. \u00a0After breakfast in our room, we headed to the Flume Gorge. \u00a0The Flume Gorge is a gorge created by falling water over many years that has cut its way through the rock. \u00a0Many of the views were spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a>
Walking up the Flume Gorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It drizzled and rained on us throughout our visit, but the views were nonetheless exciting. \u00a0Because of the rain, the water was falling a little faster than normal through the gorge.<\/p>\n

Side note: \u00a0I found that in general the employees at the New Hampshire state parks are neither helpful, friendly, nor personable. \u00a0It seems like the rangers at the national parks are much more friendly. \u00a0We had no major incident, but this is just my general impression.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The falls at the head of the Flume Gorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The falls at the top of the gorge fall in a series of small drops over rock worn smooth over years.<\/p>\n

\"Sammy<\/a>
Sammy discovers who is living in the "Bear Cave"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were a number of naturally-formed caves along the various trails we walked through the gorge. \u00a0One is this “Bear Cave.” \u00a0Another is the “Wolf Cave,” which gave the kids an opportunity to crawl through a dark tunnel formed by several large boulders resting next to and atop each other.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
More falling water in the Flume Gorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s difficult to capture the magnitude of these various falls in photographs. \u00a0You can’t really get close enough to them to put a person in the picture for perspective and scale. \u00a0Throughout the gorge the sound of rushing water is quite loud.<\/p>\n

\"Driving<\/a>
Driving through the White Mountain National Forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After visiting the Flume Gorge we went for lunch, hoping that the rain would clear up (as predicted) so that we could go on some SUNNY afternoon hikes. \u00a0Somehow those weather folks who can forecast global calamities associated with climate change over hundreds of years (with little real science behind those predictions) can’t seem to forecast the weather three hours from now. \u00a0The predicted all-afternoon sunshine only poked through for a couple of hours between three thirty and six in the afternoon, to be followed by rain of biblical proportions in the evening. \u00a0In any event, it was clear enough to go for a drive along the scenic highway through the White Mountains National Forest.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from one of the many scenic overlooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the dreariness of the afternoon (partially compensated for with computer image manipulation magic) and the low clouds, we were able to get some nice views of the mountains and valleys between Lincoln and Conway, NH. \u00a0The low-lying clouds made some of the pictures better, while completely blocking all views from other overlooks along the highway.<\/p>\n

\"Sabaday<\/a>
Sabaday Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We took a very short hike out to the Sabaday falls about halfway between Lincoln and Conway. \u00a0These falls seemed as tall as the ones in the Flume Gorge, but they didn’t have the same drama of having cut a deep crevasse through rock.<\/p>\n

\"Sabaday<\/a>
Sabaday falls with some people blocking part of the view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We really like our hotel in Lincoln. \u00a0Many of the hotels in Lincoln have retained a nostalgic feel, including many separate, small cabins. \u00a0The Mt. Coolidge Hotel is no exception. \u00a0It has the feel of a hotel in the early 60’s. \u00a0It is immaculately maintained, so it doesn’t feel like an old, run-down hotel; it feels like stepping back in time a bit.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another view of our hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sammy's<\/a>
Sammy's balloon animal from Mo the Clown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a couple of hours at the hotel pool, we went to dinner at a family restaurant that had a clown making balloon sculptures every Wednesday night. \u00a0Sammy received this cute balloon dog. \u00a0We had planned to follow up dinner with some miniature golf, but the torrential rain put the cabash on that idea. \u00a0Instead we went back to the hotel and played a card game, called Phase 10. \u00a0Despite the poor weather most of the day, we enjoyed seeing many interesting sites and beautiful vistas.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we’re off to Vermont. \u00a0Those accurate weather forecasters are predicting better weather tomorrow around Killington. \u00a0We’ll see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather didn’t cooperate with us much today. \u00a0I ran a few miles toward the entrance to Franconia Notch State Park in the morning. \u00a0After breakfast in our room, we headed to the Flume Gorge. \u00a0The Flume Gorge is a gorge created by falling water over many years that has cut its way through the … Continue reading 2011 Vacation: Day Twelve: Franconia Notch and White Mountains National Forest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}