Foliage Trip to New Hampshire and a Stay at the Mountain View Grand Resort

Last week my husband and I decided, in the spur of the moment, to take an overnight trip to the Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire to get away and to see the foliage.  We had been talking about doing this for months and once we saw that the weather forecast was good, we took some work time off and headed North.

There are two things we wanted to check off of our "mini" bucket lists this year.  I say "mini" because both of these things involved going to tourist attractions in our neighboring state of New Hampshire.  Not exactly like seeing the Great Wall of China but, we wanted to do them just the same.  One was to go to The Flume and the other was to take a ride on the Cog Railroad to the top of Mount Washington.

The Flume or Flume Gorge was on my bucket list.  I hadn't been there since I was a little girl and really wanted to go again.  My husband had never been so, now finally seemed to be the right time to go.  So, we packed the car the next morning and set the gps for Lincoln, NH.  {Not sure that is the  town where The Flume is located but, we knew we could get lunch there along the way :).}

As you can see, we were not the only ones at this tourist attraction that day and for good reason.  The weather was perfect and the "The Flume" did not disappoint.  My memory of the place was hazy but, it certainly lived up to my childhood inspired expectations.  The rock formations and the running streams were really cool. I did not, however, remember the sore muscles that were to come after the hike! Still if you've never been, The Flume is worth the trip especially if you like to be out in nature and experience all that it has to offer. 

Even with the Northeast being in a severe drought, there still was water flowing down the mountain, which was reassuring to see.

It was between 3:30 and 4:00 when we were finished at The Flume.  We had decided to take the ride on the Cog Railroad the second day of our mini vacation but, had been unsuccessful in getting reserved tickets online so, we ended up driving 35-40 minutes north to the Cog Railroad Station to purchase tickets.  With those tickets in hand we headed to our hotel to check in.

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We originally had wanted to stay at the Mount Washington Hotel near the Bretton Woods ski area but, there were no rooms available that night.  We ended up finding a vacancy at the Mountain View Grand Resort which is in Whitefield, NH.  Whitefield turned out to be a somewhat remote location with very little to offer in the way of a town center. It turns out, as we would learn from our dinner server that night, everything you want to do is about 20 minutes away from Whitefield. I was beginning to get a little nervous that we may have made a mistake in booking a room at the Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa.  However, as we drove up the long entrance road to the hotel my fears subsided. The grounds and the hotel were stately and beautiful and, after I thought about it, we really had no other choice but to stay at the Mountain View Grand.  We hadn't seen any other hotels anyway!  The Mountain View Grand is a very large yellow building with a large veranda that stretches almost the entire front side of the hotel.  The view was breathtaking!  All was well.

While the Mountain View Grand is not of the same caliber as the Mount Washington Hotel and the service was no where near as good, the Mountain View Grand was friendly and comfortable.  The staff, with some exceptions, was helpful and pleasant.  And, to be honest,  the views from the expansive front porch of the Mountain View Grand rivaled those of the Mount Washington Hotel, which is saying something because those views are magnificent too!

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The view from the veranda

We quickly checked in and sat on the veranda until sunset.  Very romantic!

That night we enjoyed a nice dinner in the lovely dining room which has a view of the mountains.  Since we were tired from our hike and drive, we decided to call it a night and retired to our comfortable room.

The next morning we had breakfast in the same dining room where we had eaten dinner.  The breakfast was very good.  The hotel offered a very large buffet with lots of variety but, I chose to order off the menu and ordered the chocolate chip pancakes, one of my favorites!

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The morning view from the veranda included a layer of fog which quickly burned off but added a different dimension to the view.

We had about an hour or so before we had to leave to head towards the Cog Railroad so, we decided to tour the grounds of the hotel.  This is a view from the Clubhouse where the outdoor swimming was is.  You can see the resort also includes a very nice golf course.

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Next we checked out the farm. Oh, I forgot to mention the hotel grounds include a farm!  That kind of put the list of amenities over the top for me! How cool!  We didn't take advantage of the early morning farm tour the hotel offered so, I am not sure if it is a working farm or not but, the farm animals were adorable and kind of funny.

There were llamas, alpacas, goats, sheep and chickens, to name a few. Cute, cute!

Isn't she cute???

There also was a greenhouse and...

Raised bed gardens.  I imagine the hotel used this produce for their restaurants.  Truly farm-to-table here!

The tour of the grounds took all the time we had allotted so, we packed up and headed for the Cog Railroad.  

Photo from the Cog Railroad Brochure

The Cog Railroad visit was on Tom's bucket list. He mentioned the desire to go on his last birthday in June.  He had always wanted to go so, I wanted to make sure we made it happen this year.

Getting ready to head up the mountain
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A view from the top

I thought the top of Mount Washington kind of looked like what I envisioned the surface of the moon would look like.  Not very pretty but, very fascinating.

Here I am at the summit taking everything in. The whole trip was really awesome.  From arriving at the base station, to riding the old-fashioned trains, to the information-giving train operators, to the scenery, to the awe-inspiring views from the top, everything was topnotch and so, so interesting.  AND, did I mention we had the perfect weather?!  I'm so glad Tom put this trek on his bucket list and we were able to go.  

  If you decide to go, keep in mind that the whole adventure takes at least three hours so, allot yourself plenty of time.

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Next, it was on to making a stop at our favorite hotel in the area...the Mount Washington Resort.  

We stopped to sit and have a coke on the back veranda of the hotel.  Unfortunately, the veranda was full (all those leaf peepers!) and there were no seats available.  We found some adirondack chairs on the back lawn and sat an enjoyed our cokes.

I guess the view from the Mount Washington was pretty good too :)!  The foliage was moving more and more toward peak every hour we were there.

The last stop on our trip was a visit to a candy store we had heard about while eavesdropping on two couples who were seated at the table next to us at breakfast.  The store was called Chutters and it's claim to fame is that it has the "world's longest candy counter".  We had to check that out!

The store was in Littleton, NH and was about 35 minutes from the Mount Washington Hotel.  Littleton is a nice community with lots of little shops and appears to be very "artsy".  We were greated with a young man blowing into a trumpet outside of a music store. It wasn't a beautiful sound but, it gave us a chuckle anyway. Free expression seems to be in vogue in Littleton :).  If we pass through this area again, I would like to spend more time there and investigate this quirky place.

Photo of marketing material from Chutters

The candy store was as advertised. The candy counter went the full depth of the store from the front to the back.  I doubt that there could be any kind of candy you could not find in this store.  I am  glad  we stopped by and can now say we have seen the longest candy counter in the world! We bought a few pieces of candy and got back into our car.  It was time to make the two hour car ride home.

The trip ended up being all we could have hoped for. We packed a lot into those two days! We saw colorful foliage, hiked The Flume, stayed in a lovely inn, saw farm animals, traveled the Cog Railroad, sat on the lawn of one of our favorite hotels and saw the world's longest candy counter.  What could be more fun?!


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