Mount Washington, New Hampshire

Our destination on this day was the top of Mt Washington in New Hampshire. We invited good friends, Tom and Dayle, to join us. Traveling on back roads, as we are likely to do, we happened by a covered bridge on the trip out and Hurricane Mountain Road on our return trip. Mount Washington was awesome, but it's not the only memory from that day.

 Tom and Dayle at the Porter-Parsonsfield Historical Bridge, built in 1876.

 One view of the 152 foot bridge.

 It's a double arch bridge, which was restored in 1999. It was closed to traffic in 1960.

 Another view of the bridge which spans the Ossipee River.

This end of the bridge is called the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Bridge. It was a joint project between the two towns located on opposite sides of the river.

Mount Washington was the location where the highest wind on the earth's surface, 231 MPH was recorded on April 12, 1934.

 It was a rare, mostly clear day with winds only gusting at 50 MPH. It still felt pretty cool.

 Looking down at a ski area.

 There are four options for getting to the top of Mt Washington, hiking, driving, taking a tour van or the train. We chose to drive and at some points, when the road was dirt and narrow, the ladies were a bit nervous. They have a long list of vehicles which are not allowed to drive it, because of the steep grade.

The cog wheel that pulls the train up the mountain. 

The train starting it's trip back down.

This is a sign on Hurricane Mountain Road. For comparison, the grades on the road up Mt Washington average 12%. We paused, took this picture, put the car in low gear and enjoyed the ride down.

Trip to Acadia National Park - Day 4 of 4

Our last day in Acadia, for this time. The weather could not have been any better. We couldn't leave without another trip around the loop road so we could stop at some of the places we missed on our first day here.

These next 5 pictures were taken from the overlook by Schooner Head.

These next three pictures show a house on the tip of Schooner Head.

 Location

 location

location!

These next seven photos are from our second visit to Thunder Hole. As you can see, the walkway is open all the way to the bottom since the water was much calmer today. Quite a difference from the first day we were here.

 Air gets trapped in a chamber under the rock which just made gurgling sounds today.

These next four we took from the end of the walkway.

Our next stop was Otter Point, where we took the next 4.

After some relaxing on the rocks at Otter Point, we took a short hike to Otter Cliff, seen in this next photo. To give some size perspective, there are people walking about half way up the cliff, but it's difficult to see them.

Our last stop before heading home was Cadillac Mountain, a dome of granite with plant life clinging to cracks and crevices. Standing at 1530 feet, it's the highest point in the park. It is also the tallest mountain on the Atlantic coast, north of Brazil. The remaining pictures in this post were taken from there.

 Here you can see three cruise ships docked just off the shore at Bar Harbor.

People can walk from Bar Harbor to Bar Island on this sand bar at low tide. Something to do the next time we visit.

Trip to Acadia National Park - Day 3 of 4

Here are a couple of interesting facts about Acadia National Park. It was established in 1916, the first national park east of the Mississippi. All the land that was joined together to create the park was donated by private citizens.

On this third day our destination was Eastport, Maine, the furthest we could go up the coast without being in Canada.We also went to Lubec to make sure we visited the eastern most point in the US. On our way up, we drove down the Schoodic Peninsula to visit this section of Acadia.

Along the western side of the Schoodic peninsula.

At the top of Schoodic Head, 440 feet.

The light on Mark Island.

The light on Egg Rock.

From Schoodic Point

A lobster fisherman hauling in his catch.

Near Eastport at low tide. You can't really see them here, but there were people way out, digging for clams.

Interesting statue in Eastport

On our way back to Bar Harbor, we took the roads closest to the coast. We see very interesting things this way, like this Navy antenna installation near Cutler.