Well, finally it is Fall. Leaves turning, beautiful blue skies, a softening of the sunlight as it moves further from us. There is a hint of cool in the air, teasing us as we wait for winter to come in. Soon the snow will be flying. For the first time ever, I am in Maine. We decided to try to get a peak at New England’s leaf colors. We arrived to unsettled weather as the end of hurricane Phillip crashed into a cool front coming from the west, 5 inches of rain and a lot of wind. While we had hoped to hike in Acadia National Park that looked like a bad idea. However, two days later the sun suddenly appeared, and we were able to beat the crowd to park.
The colors were not at their peak yet, but patches of brilliant colors were obvious among the evergreens. The hiking here is spectacular. The “mountains”, such as they are, rise from sea level to about 1500 feet. The hiking can be very treacherous as the granite is slick and many of the trails go straight up requiring hands and feet. The fabulous views of the ocean, the land and lakes aplenty, were definitely worth the work to get to the top.
Moving on to New Hampshire we drove toward more unsettled weather. The drive is beautiful with more color than Maine. In searching for things to do we found what we thought would be a silly stop – it surprised us. Close to the Vermont border but in the middle of nowhere we found the Museum of Everyday Life. It is in an old barn and an attached, slightly newer but less run-down barn. The people who created this museum did a lot of research on many of the items there – run of the mill items, like toothbrushes from the turn of the century or earlier, mirrors, a book on pencil sharpening – an entire book on how to. The parts I read were hilarious and I wish I had time to read it all. And lists people had made and kept – loads of lists (shopping, laundry, to do…), what is everyday life, but a list. If you ever find yourself driving in New Hampshire I highly recommend this museum. It is free but they suggest a donation. Quite Unique.
On to Vermont – again quite beautiful with a noticeable increase in very colorful foliage. We were able to hike between rain falls and enjoyed our stay in Stowe which is know for its wonderful (ice) skiing – as the saying goes, “if you can ski Stowe you can ski anything.”
Massachusetts had striking color even though they were still a few days away from the peak of the foliage season. We spent time on Cape Cod and learned that much of the Cape closes in early to mid- October. We were still able to find some very good seafood including lobster.
We returned to Denver on the 17th and the yellows are amazing here as well, AND the weather is spectacular. It sure is hard to beat Colorado!
Photo attribution: lifeforstock on Freepik
