After Acadia, we spent a couple nights in Freeport, Maine – headquarters of LL Bean. They have transformed the cute downtown into an outlet center anchored by several LL Bean stores, plus other brands like Patagonia, North Face, Orvis and more. It was a rainy weekend (from our experience, don’t camp under oak trees unless you want the falling acorns to keep you up all night!), so we enjoyed some indoor time in the city.
From Freeport we headed west towards New Hampshire and the White Mountains. There is a popular 35-mile scenic road here called the Kancamagus Highway. Not only were there great overlooks, waterfalls and hikes – there were also several picturesque covered bridges.
We stopped about midway on the highway and hiked a trail called Boulder Loop. This was a 3-mile hike up to a wonderful 1000-foot view. The trail was particularly interesting as it had many giant quartz boulders strewn about the hillside. And the summit was great with a rocky outcropping high above the valley below.
We intended on camping at one of the state parks here – they were all first-come, first-serve places. Unfortunately, we were driving through on Sunday of a three-day weekend during prime leaf-peeping season. Towards the end of the drive we got stuck in traffic for over two hours. By the time we got to our campground, we discovered that it was full. We luckily found one not far outside the highway that had a last minute cancellation and arrived there just after dark.
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