White Mountains Foliage Train Rides 10/12/23 - 10/14/23

After starting our trip with a hike up Peary Mountain on the way to New Hampshire (see previous post), we arrived in the White Mountains, where I decided to go for a second hike, while Sierra checked in to our motel, up White Ledge. This mountain is in the White Mountain National Forest and has a loop trail of a bit over 4 miles to its summit.

Start of the White Ledge Loop Trail

I did the loop counterclockwise, and found it very enjoyable. The trail passes across open ledges with multiple nice viewpoints in various directions from near the summit.

View east from White Ledge

I was even treated to a view of a rainbow over the Moats to the north.

Rainbow over the Moats

A few sections of the trail were slippery due to wet ledge, but it was pretty straightforward otherwise. After the hike, we returned to the Tanglewood Motel in Madison, where we were staying.

Tanglewood Motel

 

On Friday, we headed to Meredith for a ride on the Plymouth & Lincoln/Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad.

Inside the coach decorated for fall

This fall foliage special headed north from Meredith through Ashland to Plymouth, passing by lakes, through woodlands, and over rivers along the way.

The view from Ashland High Trestle

Although the crowds were quite chaotic when we were boarding at the station, once we were on the train it was very enjoyable.

Sierra enjoying the scenery

It was an enjoyable ride with friendly people, and we were served a turkey dinner at the Common Man in Plymouth, before riding the train back to Meredith.

Our train at the Common Man

After the train ride, we went for a short walk on a nature trail in Meredith.

On the nature trail in Meridith

Then we visited the old standby, Pizza Barn in Ossipee, for a delicious dinner, before returning to our motel.

Pizza Barn

I started the final day of our trip with a short sunrise hike up to a ledge near the motel which is not normally open to the public, but the owner of the motel said I could hike there. After an easy walk up an old washed out road, the ledge provided an excellent view over Madison and the surrounding mountains from the top of a sheer cliff face.

Sunrise view from the ledge near our motel

We then left the motel, and headed to North Conway to ride the Mountaineer train on the Conway Scenic Railroad.

Inside our first class coach, the Leslie Ann

We rode through Crawford Notch to Bretton Woods and back in a luxurious first class coach, enjoying the spectacular views along the way.

The view through Crawford Notch

We also stopped long enough at Crawford Station to take a short walk around Saco Lake.

Our train at Crawford Station

The view towards our train across Saco Lake

It was a truly special train journey, and we were very glad that we had the opportunity to do it