Beautiful New Hampshire, From the Sea to the Mountains - New England part 4

Our first view of the rocky coast.

We spent 5 days touring New Hampshire and I wish we had more time there. What a beautiful state! Tim and I both love the mountains and New Hampshire definitely delivered. What surprised me was the sea coast there. It isn’t a long coastline but it was stunning! I didn’t expect to see rocky beaches until Maine so this was a wonderful surprise.

First overlook on the Kancamagus Highway

While we weren’t thrilled with the campground where we stayed, it worked well as a base camp to explore the state. We stayed in the southeast part of the state so we were very close to the shoreline. I actually thought we would be too far south to see the mountains, but it was only a 1.5 hour drive up to the White Mountains. We were able to drive up in the morning and spend the day driving the Kancamagus Highway through the mountain range. This is a National Scenic Byway in the White Mountain National Forest.

This view was from the interstate before we got into the National Forest and the Kancamagus Highway.

Even though it was a good bit of driving, the trip was well worth it. There are many parking areas along the highway with overlooks and scenic areas as well as numerous trails. We didn’t have time for much hiking, but we did the drive and enjoyed all of the stopping points. There was a 1.5 mile loop Discovery Trail and a .5 mile trail to a waterfall that we did so we got in some steps for the day.

All of the stops were fantastic and we both enjoyed the drive. I feel that it was more beautiful than the pictures show. If you ever make it to New Hampshire, I highly recommend driving The Kancamagus Highway. We started in Lincoln, NH with a stop at the White Mountains Visitor Center. The ranger was very helpful and provided great information about the area as well as a map highlighted with the stops he felt we should not miss. We ended the drive in Conway, NH and then stopped for a very late lunch at Almost There Restaurant in Albany, NH. I don’t know if it was because we were so hungry by that point or not, but both our meals were fantastic. Definitely the place to stop if you are in the area and head south on 16 from the Kancmagus Highway.

On our way south from the mountains, we past a few lakes so we made another stop to admire the view and get a few more pictures. I believe the pictures are from Chocorua Lake. Ossipee Lake was also very nice. We were too tired by this point, so we did not drive over to Lake Winnipesaukee. That area would also be good to visit.

On another day, we headed over to the coast. We started our drive on 1A at North Hampton Beach and drove up along the coast to Odiorne Point State Park You could go further along 1A to Portsmouth but we turned around at that point. We had some shopping to get done and wanted to head back. If I had more time in the area, I would have gone to Portsmouth and spent some time touring the city.

On our last 2 days in the area, we spent some time enjoying a quieter campground; it had been very busy and noisy over the weekend. Being a fairly large wooded campground along a river with a beach area; it is a popular place for weekend camping and partying. We were happy on Sunday when most of the crowd left so we spent time walking around the campground and relaxing at our campsite.

I heard that there was a New Hampshire Wine and Cheese trail with a few of the wineries near the campground. We hadn’t really planned to go anywhere on Sunday but since one of the wineries was only a short drive, we decided to end our day with wine tasting. Actually, it was a Winery and Distillery, so the tasting included some bourbons. Tim was the DD and I did the tasting. Definitely a good ending to our New Hampshire visit. Monday was spent packing up the RV and getting ready for travel. Next up: Maine.