Skip to main content

The White Mountains- Cascade Path




This year, for obvious reasons (COVID 19😞), we weren't able to go to our beloved Scotland.  If you know my husband (and my children!) you know what a blow to them cancelling the trip was.  My husband has fond memories of vacationing in New Hampshire as a boy, and repeatedly kept bringing it up.  This year certainly isn't a year for international travel but we could hop in the car and head north! I strongly, forcefully even maybe, "encouraged" him to make a reservation.  There has been a lot of time in our house (rightfully so!) and even with as much outdoors and hiking as we do, that climbing-the-wall feeling had started to settle in...and with the mid-summer heat...agh!  It was becoming unbearable.  People lovingly expressed concern about us traveling to New Hampshire: the length of the car trip (10-12 hours), the rest stops  for gas, food, restrooms (germ infested- again COVID), going to grocery stores, etc.  I was determined.  We packed our modesty sized car with as much food as possible, left at 4:30 in the morning, missed all city traffic, stopped 4 times and spent less than 5 minutes at each stop.  Not one of us went into a rest stop, having hiked so much recently everyone is comfortable with the shrubbery.  We arrived in 10 hours at around 2:30-3:00 in the afternoon.  We unloaded the car, let an afternoon shower pass, and being somewhat crazy people (it wasn't even me, it was the huz: hey, we still have time for a "short" 5 miles) decided on an easy 5 mile hike. 

Let me start by saying the northeast is beautiful, and the White Mountains in New Hampshire are stunning.  Our hike was lovely, a perfect way to stretch our legs after 10 hours in the car.  It wasn't too strenuous, and lead to a pretty waterfall and swimming hole.  Our eldest loved exploring while his younger brother erected rock towers.  They were very generous with allowing me to take photos of them, too 😆.



A good portion of the walk was along the water

That's some vivid fungus

We spent most of our time at the waterfall

N wanted to take a waterfall photo

Exploring the path on both sides of the waterfall

Posing with his first 2 rock towers (bottom right-ish)

Looking older in the photo 😍

Contentedly building more rock towers while his brother explores the waterfall

Finished

Out of the forest and down the hill to finish the hike, Little Man doing what his heart loves best 💗

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fraser Preserve, Great Falls, VA- Spring

They take conservation seriously there.  This amused me to no end. Conservation trash talk! Fraser Preserve is admittedly a new discovery to me and my family.  It was property given to the Nature Conservancy in the 70's that allows and encourages walkers to enjoy.  It doesn't have tremendous mileage in terms of trails, but you can easily extend your walk via their connector trail west into Seneca Regional Park via the fire road or Potomac Heritage trail or east via the Potomac Heritage Trail towards Riverbend (see my very detailed map below).  The actual preserve is rich in wildlife and lush vegetation.  Once you enter the park from the parking lot there is, what I named in my map, an unmarked "Obvious Dirt Trail" to the left.  Take it!  I have never seen so many toads and frogs in one place in all of my life.  I dubbed that "Frog Forest."  It is also a pretty spot to stop for a snack or to have a picnic lunch.  The "Obvious Dirt Trail"...
Post a Comment
Read more

The White Mountains- Smart's Brook to Sandwich Mountain

Today was the first full day of our second trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I have been dreaming of returning since the moment we left this summer.  I knew my husband had a week off of work in October and I thought it would be a wonderful time to go back.  Once we decided to make reservations, I started buying and stashing non-perishable grocery items, preparing and freezing meals, heck, I even had the boys' and my suitcase packed a week in advance. Our trip north went well, although we took an hour longer (11 hours as opposed to 10 this summer) and it was raining the entire drive.  Luck would have it that when we drove in to Waterville Valley, the rain stopped, the sun came out and we were welcomed back with a beautiful rainbow.  I took it as a good omen. Once we arrived, we unpacked the car and went for a 5 mile walk along the Mad River, ate dinner, and went to bed dreaming of more adventures to come.  The following morning we all woke up ea...
4 comments
Read more

The White Mountains- Snow's Mountain and The Scaur

The vista from Snows Mountain This fall our trip to the White Mountains started off with some extreme mileage, a twelve mile hike (which is at least extreme to our kids), followed by two 4,000 footers.  Some times it is easy for me to get wrapped up in the "big" things like: how long is the hike, is it a famous/popular hike, is it a 4,000 footer, etc.?  But I've found that the  problem with that sort of focus is that you can potentially exhaust yourself physically and mentally (and your children!), and you tend to overlook some pretty amazing sights.  For instance, the day we drove to New Hampshire we arrived at about 4 p.m.  That is not enough time to do anything "substantial" but we walked from our house down to the river and followed the Mad River Trail for about a mile or 2.  It was gorgeous and the boys absolutely loved being along the water, the crossings, and all the rocks.  We probably would have never considered the hike otherwise.  Anoth...
Post a Comment
Read more