Skip to main content

New England Road Trip - Day 2 Continued - New Hampshire

Vermont 100 was a lot of fun, but maybe the part of our second day drive that we enjoyed the most was through New Hampshire.  I'm not sure if it was the encroaching fog as nightfall grew or the more dramatic nature of the surroundings.  But our brief time in New Hampshire was certainly a highlight.

For photos from this part of the trip head here.

We wanted to stop at the I-93 NH Visitor's Center...but it was closed for the season.  However, at the exit we came across an older font styled I-93 shield.

Older South I-93 Shield

A few miles later we would exit onto US 302 East.  A quick stop in Bethlehem found us this cast iron sign.

341

Just east of town on US 302 - we came across a great old abandoned truss bridge known as the Pierce Bridge.

346

I remember this bridge from my first ever trip to New England in October 2003 but I wasn't sure if I had it confused with a bridge further west near the Connecticut River.  Seeing this bridge again was a pleasant surprise and it made for some great photos.

351

The bridge was built in 1928 and when I first came across it 2003 I believe it was just recently abandoned.

360

The fog and approaching nightfall set upon the White Mountains just made for some great photos.

366

372

It was definitely more of a rugged look than what we had seen in Vermont.

However, my favorite shots came from Crawford Notch.  Here US 302 and tracks from the Conway Scenic Railroad travel through the notch.  And on a foggy evening - it made for some dramatic images.

378

387

389

Crawford Notch, NH

From there darkness took over and we settled in at our hotel in North Conway.  The fog and overcast conditions ruled the day, would Day 3 in Maine have the same weather.  Find out in the next few entries!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...