New England Road Trip 2008

[FrankB]

Heather and I recently returned from a 2-week road trip around New England. Unfortunately, we used a rental car and not our Xterra, so we stayed on pavement, but we did our best to take the smallest backroads we could find. We started our trip by flying in to Boston, staying at an airport hotel; picked up a rental car (a Chevy Impala POS Edition) the next morning and headed straight for New Hampshire.



Our first stop was a place called America's Stonehenge. Lots of interesting rock arrangements and structures. We only wish Mitch could have been along to explain it all to us. This is called the Sacrificial Table.



From there we drove across the bottom of New Hampshire and in to Vermont, where spent 2 nights in the little town of Grafton. Very nice place, with a cheddar cheese factory, and generally really good food. The fall colors were great too.

The Old Tavern Inn at Grafton




Lots of interesting people in Vermont.


From Grafton we headed back east and into New Hampshire, driving north along the Connecticut River, checking out the scenery and covered bridges along the way. Here's the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, the longest covered bridge in the US.


In the White Mountains of New Hampshire we stopped at Franconia Notch State Park and toured The Flume, a narrow cut in the rocks with water rushing along at the bottom, and a narrow wooden walkway perched on the side of the rock.




More fall color.

[Aperion]

wow, that looked like some trip, gorgeous pictures!

[FrankB]

Before we left the White Mountains we made a trip on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway to the summit of Mt. Washington, which is known for having some of the worst weather in the US.



The line was built in 1866 to carry tourists to the summit. It takes over an hour for the coal-fired steam engine to push the single passenger car up the 3 mile run. The gain in elevation is over 3,500 feet. This thing burns over a ton of coal for each trip.



It was a bit cold at the summit (26F with winds of 30MPH, peaking at close to 80MPH over the prior 24 hours).


On the way down the sun came out and we finally got to see something outside the windows of the train.



More scenics views as drove through the White Mountains Nat'l Forest.





From New Hampshire we traveled through central Maine on towards the coast at Bar Harbor. Along the way we stopped to check out the view from the observatory at the top of one of the towers of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. The elevator takes 59 seconds to climb 400' to the top.

[FrankB]

Our first stop on the island where Acadia Nat'l Forest is located was Thurston's Lobster Pound for some lunch.



Jordon Pond, in Acadia National Forest.



Bass Harbor Light.



Sommesville, Maine



Pemaquid Point Light.



Every little town has a white church with a colorful tree in front.



Nubble Light (the only way to get to it is in a basket hauled over on a cable. Unfortunately it's not open for tours.)



Rockport, Mass.



Our trip took us in a big circle, starting and ending in Boston, but we never went into the city. We spent the first night at Logan Airport, then 2 nights in Vermont (Grafton), followed by 3 nights in New Hampshire (Lyme and Littleton), then 5 nights in Maine (Wilton, Bar Harbor and Freeport) and finally, 2 nights in Rockport, Mass.

[Soylent Yellow]

That looks like one of the best trips ever.  New England is an excellent place to visit.

[AV Xterra]

Nice trip.  I was in Rockport last year, very nice.

[jefenger]

Frank, awesome photos! New England is a beautiful place this time of the year..

[XterracerX]

Awesome pics Frank... as always! Sounds like another epic road trip!

The train reminds me of the typical Xterra stance... 

[Oz]

Heather and I recently returned from a 2-week road trip around New England. Unfortunately, we used a rental car and not our Xterra, so we stayed on pavement, but we did our best to take the smallest backroads we could find. We started our trip by flying in to Boston, staying at an airport hotel; picked up a rental car (a Chevy Impala POS Edition) the next morning and headed straight for New Hampshire.

Missed this post~ Great Pictures Frank! Looks like you had a great time

[Blackx]

Looks like fun.  America's Stonehenge looks interesting.  And the train ride looks freezing, brrrr.