Flume Gorge, Franconia, NH

Wednesday was a beautiful day that we decided would be warm and sunny enough to go to Flume Gorge near Franconia, NH. These mountains and Peabody Ski Slopes were sights as we neared the Gorge This is awesome scenery as anyone knows who has traveled through any mountains in this great country of ours. We never tire of it and we hope you do not tire of hearing about it. Often when we see something neat or unusual, it takes too long to get the camera ready to use. I am beginning to travel down the road with it in my hands instead of having it in it's case. We keep hoping to see a moose to photograph, but have not yet. Today when we stopped in a little antique shop, the elderly lady running it was telling that she had seen one just last weekend and also a black bear that decided to feed on apples under her tree. He just laid there under the tree pulling them in with his paws. I would have loved to have a camera ready for that! And it was just a wee bit down the road from our RV park. Oh well, we have not left NH yet! We entered the gift shop to go into Flume Gorge and saw this stage coach used to deliver mail in the Plymouth and Franconia Mountains in by gone days. It's a beauty! As we followed this path we came to the river bottom that was solid rock before going on up hill to the falls and gorge areas. There is so much beauty around that I had to stop just to look around . It is good that it was such a sunny day. We dressed for cool air and mosquitoes, but were not bothered by either, except mosquitoes as we reached the bottom stretch as we got back to the gift shop at the starting point. As you see the path is sometimes man made of wood and later becomes mostly gravel. We cross a bridge to the other side of the gorge and the rock walls become higher and the falls begin as short falls . They show this photograph of the gorge and falls as it was before it was changed with the man made amenities for comfort in walking and climbing. Note the long dress! Then the river levels out before another climb begins . On the way we pass these falls . As we begin our descent we get a look at a still pool . Gary realized that we have cell reception so he decided to make a congratulatory call to a former co-worker who is retiring this week . So Jack we hope you and your wife enjoy it as much as we do! The tree growth is fascinating and we thought of you, Richie, and thought you might think that we saw a dinosaur , no? Grandpa thought that you might want to check out this Bear Den . Still we did not see any bear! We passed what they called Glacial Gardens , looks like rocks to me. Then we came to this pine covered bridge over Pemigewasset River in Franconia Gorge. There was a 175 ft. white pine that stood at this point for more than a century when a hurricane in 1938 brought it down. It was known as the Sentinel and thus the bridge became known as the Sentinel Pine Bridge. There was another story about this very area of the gorge, that a Professor John Merrill built a crude boat in 1853 and began giving annual tours for the next thirty years to this pool and the gorge. The gratuities that he got for these annual tours gave him a comfortable living for the rest of the year. After crossing this bridge we came upon this Wolf Den that we could have crawled through?? We decided to leave this for the children. Thus ends another day of fun for two oldies enjoying retirement! It was a two mile hike and we took three hours to do it and enjoyed every minute of it. I even managed to work out a kink in my knee that had been bothering me day and night for days. So guess we need more exercise! See you down the road at Bethlehem, NH.