North Country View

I spent this uncommonly warm April day driving upstate to Bethlehem, Littleton, and finally Lancaster. This is a blog about southern NH trails, but today's trip was pleasant enough to rate a mention. I took this photo from the auto road up Mt. Prospect at Weeks State Park in Lancaster. The road is closed to auto traffic until sometime later this spring, but pedestrians may leave their cars at the base of the road and walk to the top. This is the view of the Presidential Range from one of the pull-offs along the way.

This has been a very dry winter and spring. As the photo shows, the Presidentials have far less snow cover than is typical for this time of year. I drove through Franconia Notch on my way north, and Cannon's ski trails are merely streaked with snow. (The ski area shut down for the season some time ago.) On the eastern side of the notch, only Lafayette had a snowcap, and it looked unimpressive. The bright side to this drought - and it is definitely a drought - is that the bugs haven't come out yet. I was out for several hours today and wasn't bitten at all.

I didn't walk all the way to the summit on this trip, but I encourage readers to do so if they get a chance. The summit's fire tower is unique. Instead of the usual metal skeleton, this one is a flagstone tower. This is an active firespotting station, and if you're lucky, you'll be there on a day when it's staffed & the cab is open to the public. As you'd expect, the views are outstanding.

The entrance to Weeks State Park is on U.S. 3 in Lancaster, about 2 miles north of the Whitefield town line. Details are available at the NH Parks & Rec web site here.