Later this year - but before peak fall color season, I will be going on a short vacation. For this one, the primary stops are the Currier Art Museum in Manchester, NH; the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, ME; the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum in St. Johnsbury, VT.
I’m hitting those roughly in that order and then will head back towards DC. I’m looking for recommendations for short stops that won’t add a lot of driving time. Particularly “photogenic” lighthouse and covered bridges and general nature sights (waterfalls especially). I’ve done Portland, ME on an earlier trip.
Places that require long hikes are not in the scope of this trip but will be noted for future consideration. My traveling companion wants to see the Ben & Jerry’s factory. Is that worth the time?
I strongly recommend Ft. Edgecomb in Edgecomb, ME. If the blockhouse is open, you are free to go inside and explore. Even if it’s not, you are still on a beautiful little island. It is accessible by bridge and is right off Rt. 1.
Ft. Popham/ Popham Beach in Phippsburg is another favorite of mine on days when I am traveling up the coast. (I live in Portland) There is a large and beautiful beach, and a couple miles down the road is a series of forts.
If you want to see waterfalls, I would go to Grafton Notch State Park, near Bethel. It is in the mountains and has many beautiful waterfalls.
I just came back from a trip through parts of New England, with two younger kids. We did a bit in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Since I had my kids we did more family oriented types of things, but the Flume Gorge was nice. It is a two mile hike or so, but there are a couple of waterfalls along the way. The trail was pretty wide and easy to do with the exception of some stairs near the big waterfall.
We also did the Ben and Jerry’s tour, I really wasn’t that impressed, it took maybe 10-15 minutes total. They had a movie, that wasn’t working when I was there, and they stood above the factory floor and showed you how it was made. Then a bit of ice cream. Interesting, but not worth the stop if it’s too far out of the way.
We didn’t do anything else in Vermont so couldn’t really tell you what else was in the area.
Well, if you’re going to be in Rockland, ME, you can check out Camden which is a pretty town with some nice views (there’s a hill outside of town that you can drive or hike up).
You could also do a Puffin tour (http://hardyboat.com/puffin-watch/) where they take you around an island colony of Puffins and other seabirds. You don’t get to land on the island, but you will probably get a pretty good view of puffins.
If you’re interested in hand tools, the Lie-Nielsen toolworks is in Warren, ME but, as I know from experience, that can be an expensive stop
From Rockland to St Jay, be sure to take the Kancamagus Highway. This is Route 112 from Conway to Lincoln. There on the right heading west out of Conway you will find your waterfalls and a nice place to take kids and slip and slide in the water and nice small pools. Kids love it there. We made the trip there every summer with ours when younger.
Once your off the Kancamagus in Lincoln you pick up 93 and right up to St Jay, bout 1-1/2 hour or so.
Ben and Jerry’s is perhaps 1-1/2 hour from St Jay. Nice tour but not as long as you think. If your into craft beer Waterbury is one of the places to be in Vermont and downtown has a number of places to eat and enjoy many varieties from local to afar.
You like covered bridges so there is Emily’s Bridge in Stowe on Gold Brook Road. This is about 20 minutes from Ben & Jerry’s and comes complete with the local ghost lore.
If you wish to see 3 in a row then find the old road from Northfield Falls to Moretown, starting on the Northfield side. There are 3 bridges there, although I do not know how they fared in the 2011 floods from the Irene storm. I believe they are still standing. This would be about 40-50 minutes from Ben & Jerry’s in the other direction.
If you’re into museums, try Marblehead, Mass. Its Old and Historic District is an external museum and is on the National, and State Registers and has hundreds (?) of pre-Revolutionary homes as well as artifacts in small museums, especially at its main Town office building, Abbot Hall ,which houses the original Willard painting of The Spirit of '76. Home of Elbridge Gerry, signer of the Declaration of Independence, VPOTUS under Madison, and who gave us the term gerrymander (pronounced with a hard G, please. It has the home (and 1600’s cemetery containing the bones) of General John Glover whose Marblehead Mariners saved George Washington’s butt twice by rowing his army across the East River and across the Delaware River. The first American Navy ship (Hannah) was built there and its beautiful U-shaped harbor has thousands of boats anchored all summer. It’s next to Salem which also has some neat relics.
Bon voyage.
I normally encourage travelers to NE to visit Newport, RI, but that’s probably more suited to your next trip. You’ll be in Northern NE for the first one, and RI is distinctly Southern NE.
When driving through Wiscasset, ME, stop at Red’s Eats for a Lobster Roll. It’s just before the bridge, well worth the line. If you have a full day, a boat trip and visit to Monhegan Island from Boothbay Harbor is a trip back to a simpler time.
The quickest way to St J is via Rt 2, north of the Whites. You can take the Kanc (Rt 112 from Conway to Lincoln) but I’d recommend taking Rt 302 instead. It’ll take you up through Crawford Notch which is more dramatic terrain than the Kanc, and also less out of your way. There are several nice waterfalls near the top of the Notch. If you wanted to take the Cog RR to the summit of Mt Washington that would take about half a day and it’s not cheap. But a lot of folks love that sort of thing.
Follow up: Ft Edgecomb, Camden and the Flume Gorge were part of the trip and great recommendations. Quick glance at the description of the “pool” at the Flume was almost skipped but was the visual highlight (covered bridge over a waterfall in a beautiful valley).
Ben & Jerry’s was as advertised above, quick tour, not much insight and the free sample on a $4 tour was small. The retired flavors graveyard was interesting. Better “shopping” stops were Vermont Country Store, Cabot Creamery, Northshire Bookstore and a sugar house (Goodrich’s but there are several to chose from).
I used “Lighthouse Friends” and “Covered Bridge Map” websites for specific directions.
We skipped a lot that we had on our “maybe” list so another trip will be planned. Thank you to all who provided suggestions.
