Holiday to New England in Oct 2023: Day 6 – Littleton

Today was Leaf Day! This was the day we would finally see the leaves we have travelled 3,200 miles to come and see.

We started off the day with a Starbucks in bed at 5:30am. I did the honours. It was damp out and still dark, but I managed to skip across the main road with very little trouble. At that time of the day, there were very few vehicles around.

Whilst slurping our drinks, we laughed at our recollection of an unusual mid-night discussion about a noise that woke me up. I asked Vick whether that was her “shuffling”. Vick asked me why I thought she was “shovelling”. We then went back to sleep! Bizarre exchanges in the night.

We checked out breakfast at the Hampton Inn with an ulterior motive: we secreted plates, glasses and utensils away for use later on for enjoying dinner in our room.

We made up turkey and cheese sandwiches, using the ingredients we had bought from the supermarket last night. We were hoping to find somewhere nice amongst the trees during the day to enjoy our lunch.

We drove 20 miles down the I93 to Lincoln where we joined the Kancamagus Highway for about 40 miles taking us through the White Mountains to Conway.

Overall, the traffic was relatively light and there was plenty of space at stop offs along the way.

We started off at the Visitor Centre in Lincoln to pick some info, where we came across a coachload of middle-aged Asian tourists.

We managed to get away ahead of them – the last thing we wanted was to get stuck behind a coach!

First stop was the Hancock Overlook, where the variation of colours was amazing.

Next up was Sugar Hill Overlook, which was similarly colourful.

However, one of us was still not that impressed with the lack of red-leaved trees! Some people are never happy!

Then came Sabbaday Falls which included a short hike. I took a bit of video to capture the essence of the falls, which I will post at a later point.

We then stopped off at Rocky Gorge Scenic Area where the Swift River has worn a narrow cleft in solid rock.

It was a great place for capturing the beauty of the Kancagamus Highway.

Here, we also found some better examples of trees with red leaves. Vick was a little happier.

Albany Covered Bridge and Boulder Loop Trail was up next.

Covered bridges is (apparently) what New Hampshire is renowned for (according to the Vickster).

After driving through the covered bridge, we parked up at the Boulder Loop Trail car park, but went on a wild goose chase trying to find the trail.

It was in the opposite direction! By the time we found it, the rain was coming down and we decided it may be better if stayed in the car.

When we reached Conway, we headed north on Highway 302. That took us through North Conway, where the traffic was mad.

We stopped off on the side of the road to eat our sandwiches, at which point we headed back to the hotel.

Since we were getting a little concerned about the temp in the house and the pussies, Mike helped to turn our central heating on at home (the boiler had been physically turned off due to the hot water issues).

It was good to see the temperatures slowly rise and we could only imagine the warmth felt by Mango and Chutney as they snuggled down into their respective beds.

Whilst back at the hotel, I also spent some time working through some Dovecote RA issues.

By the time all of that had been done, we prep’d our in-hotel dinner and enjoyed some Cheescake Factory chocolate bread, salad, brie, faux pickle (you can’t get branston pickle in the US), crackers and strawberry cheesecake.

All washed down with a bottle of rose.

A nice end to the best day so far for us leaf-peepers!

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to New England in Oct 2023