New England Fall

"Fall is my favorite."
"Nothing beats a New England Fall."
"You're going to LOVE it."
"I'm so jealous."
...

I could go on and on about all of the wonderful things I've been told about Fall in New England, but I'll just post some photos of our adventures instead.

Our favorite tree outside of our weekday morning stop at Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Club.

The cool, crisp air has been a welcome change from the heat of Florida, but I'm still desperately missing my Sunshine State roots.  No better way to take my mind off what I'm missing than to fully submerse myself in what's right outside of my new front door.  Welcome to my (current) world.

We've been experiencing quite a drought up here, and the leaves have been slow to change color.  But the temps have started to decline and I knew I wanted to make a drive up to the White Mountains before things turned wintry in the higher elevations.

I've really wanted to do a 3.5 hour scenic drive with multiple stops around the White Mountains during leaf season, but seeing as it's a 2 hour drive just to get up there, that's too much car time in 1 day for our boys.  So, we decided to hit the highlights that would be most interesting as a family for a quick day trip.

Franconia Notch State Park.  The Flume.  This beauty is a natural gorge that extends 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty.  As we're in the Granite State, walls of granite rose around us between 70-90 feet as we made our way through the 12-20' wide paths.  Narrow width paths surrounded by endless granite walls didn't make for optimal photo taking at the most breathtaking points of The Flume, though.  Oh well, the experience is typically more exciting than a photo anyhow!

We hiked a relatively easy 2 mile loop that didn't disappoint with views of streams, waterfalls, lakes, historic bridges and plenty of fall leaves.

Pemigewasset River Bridge, 1886.

New England Fall

A short drive took us to Cannon Mountain.  However, when Bryon went to purchase our aerial tram tickets the vendor told us that it was single digit temperatures at the summit and ZERO visibility.  He recommended that we come back in a few hours, if possible.

3 hours (and full bellies) later, we hopped on the gondola and made our way to the summit.  I was expecting views of the mountains with green, yellow, orange and red covered hills.  A sighting of Canada off in the distance (not kidding!).  I got all of that...

On our way up...

...What I wasn't expecting was we neared the final stretch was frost covered treetops.  FROST (not kidding, again)!

Perfect mix of seasons.

Holding on to Autumn AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.  I feel ya.

Summit surprise.

Immediately after stepping off the gondola.  50 degree swing.  Freezing my face off.

Winter phobias aside, it was surreal  Quite like we'd walked into Narnia.  Bitter-cold and windy (it's definitely time for us to invest in some top quality cold weather gear)...but absolutely stunning.  The gentleman operating the tram on the way down said that he's worked there for 10 years and today was the best view he's ever seen.  I'll take it!

We may just have to head back for skiing in the Winter!

I'd anticipated on driving to some more waterfalls and trails, but the 3 hour lunch layover changed the itinerary.  With the days getting shorter, we had just enough time to drive home for the boys' usual bedtime.  Maybe the weather will cooperate and allow us to visit one more Saturday before winter arrives.  Hey, a girl can dream.

Learning to keep his hands in his pockets for warmth.

Never too cold for a smile from this one.