Trip to Bar Harbor and New Hampshire, 2012

I'm finally getting around to writing about this trip taken early in June, 2012.  It was a Road Scholar trip in Bar Harbor, but the rest was on my own in a rental car.  Since Southwest flies to Manchester, NH, I went through there.  After checking the weather before leaving, I was not surprised by the next few days of rain.  After arriving in Manchester, I drove to a coastal town in Maine but couldn't see anything about an ocean that evening or the next day.  So I headed for the tollway and drove straight on up to Bar Harbor and settled in at the motel.  That evening in an old, small, extremely uncomfortable school bus we toured the town and saw the "cottages" built by the very wealthy from the 1890s on, when Bar Harbor was a playground for the rich.

The next day we took one of the drives around the island, which is mostly Acadia National Park.

 

We also took a trail through the lush forest to view ruins of a lavish summer home before most of the island became a park.  The next day we went to another part of the island and took some very scenic hikes along an abandoned village.

This was once a library for the small remaining town but is now houses artists.

That evening we took a drive up Cadillac mountain (about 1200'), but the strong wind soon had us back in the bus.  I tried to get a couple of pictures of the sunset, but the wind moved the camera too much.

After the Road Scholar trip was done, I walked along the town shoreline before leaving for New Hampshire.    By this time the weather was clearing.  I also drove to the summit of Cadillac mountain to hike a little and appreciate the view without the wind.  This is not much of a mountain by Colorado standard, but it is the highest point on the Eastern seaboard and has beautiful views.

The drive through Maine was on local roads and gave me an idea of lifestyles in the area.  In western Maine a road through a national forest was exceedingly beautiful.  It was slow and narrow, reminding me of the Natchez Trace, being so well timbered.  By evening I was settled in for a long next day exploring a little of NH.  The first item on the agenda was a guided trip up Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in the East and the home of "the world's worst weather".  I believe that, as the weather was quite blustery at the top, even though it was an average June day everywhere else.  On the way to Mt. Washington I hiked a trail to some spectacular waterfalls, which were roaring big this time of the year.

Views from the tour van.

There was enough snow on top for several snowmen.

A restored hotel.  Mt. Washington was a popular tourist site in the 1800s even.

This is a trail marker for a trail to an Appalachian Mountain Club hostel.

One of the famous Mt. Washington cats.  I picked up the children's book about how cats came to keep the lonesome meteorologists company in the snowed in winters.

The rest of the day was completing a scenic circle drive, with a long stop for a hike through a canyon with a raging river carving it.  The lush green forests of the East make this canyon a very different experience from my usual canyon trips.

A good place for a picnic lunch, viewing Mt. Washington.

Goodbye to New Hampshire.