Exploring the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Tanks flushed. Laundry done. Chores caught up on.

We were ready to head out into the wilderness of the White Mountains for a few days of exploring.

After reading a few blogs of nomads before us, we were not anticipating having much connectivity.

And none of the Forest Service Campgrounds in the White Mountains offer electrical hook-ups. But yet are heavily wooded, so we weren’t anticipating much solar collection either.

We vowed to take a few days off work and actually get out exploring. Wow, imagine that??

This post covers August 22-24.

Hancock Campground – Lincoln, NH

We left out of Ashland on Monday morning, and made the short drive north into the mountains.

We had selected highway 112, also known as the Kancamagus Highway (or as the locals call it.. ‘The Kanc’ – it’s a lot easier to pronounce) that connects Lincoln to Conway.

There are half a dozen first come first serve Forest Service campgrounds along the scenic cut across – all of which can accommodate RVs of most any size, and are priced at $24/night.

Just on the outskirts of Lincoln, sits Hancock Campground (our review)- the first of them from the west.

Our Verizon devices were still getting a hint of signal. Could it be true? Internet in the forest after all?

We parked the bus and walked the campground – finding several suitable sites available. Site 47 in particular called to us both, so we decided to pay for a night at least.

After getting parked, we got in the MINI and motored the rest of The Kanc, stopping in several of the other campgrounds to see if anything tempted us. Most of the campgrounds are very similar – lovely decently sized sites in forest cover.

We couldn’t see any advantage to moving and giving up our internet signal and easy access to town amenities. So we prepaid for the rest of our expected time in the area when we got back to camp.

Every night we were there, the campground pretty much filled to capacity by late afternoon. So we count our selves lucky (wise?) to have come in early in the day for prime selection.

Our site was out of ear shot of the highway, but we could hear the rushing water of the Pemigewasset River that ran just mere feet behind us.

We spent many an evening sitting along the banks watching the Milky Wave spill into the river. And during the day, campers indulged in small swimming holes along the shores.

The Lincoln Woods trail head is just up the road, which provided ample hiking opportunity. Had we been in the area longer, we would have gotten the bikes out to hit the trails too.

And we got a couple hours of decent sun peaking through the trees, that kept our batteries nicely charged up without needing to run our generator.

The Weeks Act Legacy Trail

While we were able to score usable internet, we kept our promise of taking time off and exploring – not working.

We selected the Weeks Act Legacy Trail drive, a 100-mile loop through the highlights of the White Mountains as our adventure.

The trail is named for the Weeks Act of 1911, which paved the way for purchasing of land to create the national forest preserves.

We downloaded the audio tour, and set off for a day of self guided motoring!

It’s a beautiful drive, and we can only image how much more stunning it will be later this fall.

Definitely a great way to get an overview of the area.

The trail passes through both the provisioning towns of Lincoln and Conway, making great pitstops for lunch or a snack.

The Cog up Mt. Washington

On the northern side of the Weeks Act Legacy drive sits Mt. Washington – the tallest peak in New England.

There are three ways to get to the top: Driving. Hiking. Or The Cog Railway.

Hiking was out. We’re adventurous, but not mountain climbing adventurous.

We considered driving to the top, but a Cog Railway?!?

A train ride will almost always win our hearts if given the choice. And besides with a 100 mile motoring tour, a break from driving would be nice.

We honestly didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into with this adventure, and at first thought the $69 ticket price was a bit steep. We’ve done incline railways & funiculars before – and thought this would mainly be a touristy jaunt up the mountain.

Instead, it’s a pretty unique adventure riding the first world’s first mountain climbing train built in 1869. Using cogs to climb the tracks up the mountain grades, the engine pushes the specially designed car full of passengers.

Over the years, it’s advanced in technology from a coal fired steam powered engine (which they still run one a day), to today’s modern & efficient biodiesel engines that require less than 20 gallons of fuel for the round trip.

They run 2 or 3 engines concurrently with each departure. Twisting through scenic views, and at times traversing 37 degree inclines. The journey takes about 45 minutes in each direction.

On the way up, passengers are encouraged to stand up to feel the incline.

Passengers are let off for exploring around the summit for an hour – where you can visit the weather station (the site of the highest recorded wind speed), base camp and overlooks.

And then you board a new train for the descent. This time, controlling the brakes is key.

The views are absolutely stunning.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Cog experience, much more than we anticipated. We both returned to the base giddy.

Tip: The last departure of the day is discounted $15 during summer hours. We planned our Weeks Act Legacy motoring to arrive in time for the last departure of the day at 3:30pm. The savings was nice, but in all honesty – this trip was worth every penny.

What’s Up Next?

All and all, our time in the White Mountains was way too short. We only spent three nights, but could have easily talked ourselves into more.

If only we could add a few more weeks to our time in the northeast!

But new adventures were calling on the coast of Maine.

Next up for us would be a visit to China (the city, not the country).

Those tales will be told soon enough.