We have been exploring the white mountains of New Hampshire the last couple of days. We arrived at Along the River Campground and the kids immediately jumped in the pool. The campground is small, but peaceful and very family friendly. The RV sites have full hookups (yay!) but still feel woodsy and quiet.

We started out white mountains adventure by heading to the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. It’s an approximately 2 mile loop hike along a gorgeous river and waterfall. There is a wooden pathway and bridge structure along the river through the gorge that is breathtaking. The kids were able to climb on glacial boulders, walk through covered bridges and experience the spray of rushing water through the gorge. Penelope even braved a cave cut through solo that required hands and knees traveling. I waited at one end and Jake waited at the other. She was nervous but totally rocked it and emerged happy! Phineas took a pretty significant tumble near the end of the hike, but recovered quickly and we all had ice cream back at the visitor’s center. Penelope has discovered black raspberry ice cream and now looks for it at every ice cream stand she comes across.

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United States. It’s famed for its extreme weather. Multiple weather systems converge on the mountain and the weather can change dramatically in a matter of moments, making hiking unprepared dangerous. On our second day in NH, the weather forecast was calling for an unseasonably warm 90 degrees, so I knew that was our day to summit Mt Washington. In 1869 the Mount Washington Cog Railway was completed. It was the first rack and pinion railroad and it’s builder, Sylvester Marsh, invented many of the features that are used today on this and other cog railways (such as on Pike’s Peak and in the Alps).

It’s possible to drive up (or hike, if you are fit and daring), but we elected to ride the cog railway to experience the history. The trip up the summit takes about an hour, you have an hour to explore the summit, then another hour down. It was amazing. The views alone were incredible. The temp on the summit was 59 degrees and windy – 30 degrees less than the base. I wasn’t sure what to expect since we’ve been to the top of Pike’s Peak in CO and Mt Washington is less than half that elevation. But it was perfect: stunning without the difficulty breathing. There is a post office box at the peak, so we mailed a couple of postcards. Be on the lookout, Nimmy!