Issues → September 2006 → Travel →
The Best Foliage Drives in New England
National Scenic Byways for the perfect fall trip
So many wonderful drives, so little time. To select these tours, we went to the real road warriors -- the Federal Highway Administration. They've established a program, National Scenic Byways, that recognizes and preserves roads with beautiful vistas, historic sites, access to public lands, and other qualities that make them more than just a Sunday drive. Throw in spectacular fall color, and you've got a perfect day-trip.
Vermont: Through the Notch
The 18-mile stretch of Route 108 that connects Stowe and Jeffersonville via Smugglers' Notch is a destination in itself, as well as a way to get from one town to another during the spring, summer, and fall. It starts out looking like any other easily negotiable Vermont road, but after it courses past the resort-area businesses that trail north out of Stowe and leaves behind the ski area, it's easy to see why no plow dares make the passage in winter.
Steep slopes crowd close once you reach Mount Mansfield State Forest, and Route 108 narrows to a blacktop corkscrew of a road with a 16 percent grade. On the Stowe side, there's access to the resort's gondola and auto road to Mount Mansfield's summit, along with picnic and camping spots. Near the crest of the notch, where the dark walls of Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak loom above the road, you can pull over and hike to Sterling Pond, the highest pond on the Long Trail. Here it's never fully daylight, especially beneath the 1,000-foot rise that lofts to the stark rock formation called Elephant's Head. Did smugglers really use this route more than two centuries ago to secretly transport supplies to the Canadian-based British army? If not, they should have: Not only is it the most direct way through the northern Green Mountains, but it's also crammed with rocky nooks and crannies.
Vistas broaden after you navigate the sharp summit turns, and the road straightens on the way down past Smugglers' Notch ski resort and into Jeffersonville. Now you're in northern Vermont, where things are just a bit more rustic, and even a sizable ski area isn't beset by bistros and boutiques. Take time to enjoy it before you make that drive back to the other side of the notch.
New Hampshire: Mountains at Every Turn
The most dramatic way to enter the White Mountains region is to follow I-93 and Route 3 north through Franconia Notch, then head east along Route 302 to Route 16. The 75-mile winding drive is one of sweeping views, turnoffs to logging roads and hiking trails, babbling brooks, waterfalls, and covered bridges.
Just north of Lincoln, the road narrows between the majestic peaks of the Franconia and Kinsman Ridges. Cannon Mountain's rocky face drops down to Profile Lake, over which the Old Man of the Mountain once presided.
Here Franconia Notch State Park offers much to explore, including the Basin's glacial potholes, the granite walls covered with moss in the Flume, and the Appalachian Mountain Club's (AMC's) Greenleaf and Lonesome Lake high-mountain huts. The Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway's 15-minute ride whisks you to within a short walk of the 4,200-foot summit, where on a clear day you can see into Vermont, New York, Canada, and Maine.
After the road skirts the Twin Mountains, the grand Mount Washington Hotel -- a fixture of the landscape since 1902 -- comes into view. Stop here, if only to walk the wraparound porch and take in the magnificent view of the namesake mountain.
Now the road widens, edged by wildflower meadows and boggy ditches -- a favorite habitat of moose -- before narrowing again through Crawford Notch. Just before starting the descent to the Mount Washington Valley, you come to the AMC's Highland Center. New trails crisscross the property, introducing visitors to hiking basics and the concept of ecological stewardship. Inside, mountaineering photos by Bradford and Barbara Washburn rival big-city exhibits.
At about the halfway point of this scenic tour, The Notchland Inn's Tudor-style roofline pokes up out of the colorful foliage of the 778,000-acre White Mountain National Forest. Turn up the drive and discover a refined retreat in the wilds of New Hampshire. The dining room serves a five-course meal most nights, and afterward you can relax with a book or work on a puzzle next to the Gustav Stickley fireplace.
For most of the remaining drive, the road parallels the Saco River and the Conway Scenic Railroad. In Bartlett, a side trip takes you along Bear Notch Road to several stellar viewpoints. Or continue on Route 302, looking for the slopes of the Attitash ski area. Take the Scenic Sky Ride, a chairlift that carries you to the top of the mountain, for stunning autumn views.
Back on the road, a southbound Scenic Railroad train whistles. The first billboards in 25 miles appear, and the number of businesses increases as the blacktop winds into Glen, North Conway, and Conway. Here there are myriad options for a bite to eat and a little shopping while still being able to see the mountains. End your tour by taking East Side Road through Conway's Saco River covered bridge before heading home. Or, if you haven't gotten enough of the mountains, complete a 110-mile loop by following the Kancamagus Highway (Route 112) back to Lincoln.
Connecticut: A Natural Gentility
As you drive along Route 169 in the eastern part of the state, it soon becomes clear why this section of Connecticut is called the Quiet Corner. This route, located just off I-395, offers 32 miles of pure, uninterrupted tranquillity.
In Lisbon, weathered-clapboard home-steads appear around every bend. Stone walls flank the road to the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury. (Prudence Crandall was a prescient white woman who educated black girls from 1833 to 1834 before a club-wielding mob brought an end to her school.)
Back on Route 169, giant trees cast long shadows on faded red barns. The apple orchards and hiking and biking trails just off the road beckon.
Continuing on, you soon reach the town of Brooklyn, settled in the 1600s. Past the Brooklyn Fairgrounds, site of the oldest agricultural fair in the country, is a charming 18th-century bed-and-breakfast called the Friendship Valley Inn. Innkeepers Beverly and Rusty Yates greet guests with glasses of homemade iced tea.
For a special treat, visit The Golden Lamb Buttery, part of a 1,000-acre estate just off Route 169. Enjoy a late-afternoon hayride (you just might find a glass of Pinot Noir hand-delivered in a '53 Jaguar). For dinner, try the roast duckling -- the house specialty -- which is so tender it falls off the bone.
Twenty-six miles from the start of your trip, in Woodstock, stands Roseland Cottage, a resplendent raspberry sherbet-colored Gothic Revival house with maroon trim and dark-green shutters. The cottage was built by Henry Bowen, a local boy who moved to New York and struck it rich. He and his family returned to the cottage every summer, and their original furnishings are still on display here.
Massachusetts: Where Time Stands Still
If you could survey the generations of Cape Cod visitors and draw a composite picture from their most lasting impressions, the result would almost certainly be a sketch of Route 6A, Old King's Highway (named after the cart path that early settlers used to travel to and from Plymouth Colony). This section of the Cape is iconic and timeless, a single 40-mile canvas of demure white clapboards and weathered cedar shingles. You can see it in your mind's eye: the saltbox homes and sharp-steepled churches, the beaches lapped by placid surf, the vintage motel cottages, the ice-cream and fried seafood stands.
A good place to begin is the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich. The unsurpassed collections of Americana housed here on 100 landscaped acres set the tone for the journey ahead. Continuing east, you pass so many signs for antiques and art galleries that you may suspect every resident sells things out of his or her garage. Around the halfway point, in Yarmouth Port, stop at the Edward Gorey House to browse the original artwork and personal effects of its famous and prolific namesake, whose darkly humorous illustrations are an antidote to everything sentimental.
Cape Cod Bay is largely invisible from the road except in glimpses across the occasional salt marsh, but if you take nearly any left-hand turn, you'll find a beach. The best beaches are in the town of Dennis. For excellent panoramic views of the bay's ever-changing light, visit Dennis's Scargo Hill Observatory, a small stone observation platform built in 1902 on the area's highest point of land (106 feet).
The penultimate town, Brewster, tempts weary travelers with numerous attractive bed-and-breakfasts, many of which were 19th-century sea captains' homes. Before you know it, the arching boughs over the winding blacktop yield to bustling Orleans, where Old King's Highway ends.
Maine: Land of Moose and Rivers
Calling the Old Canada Road (Route 201) a scenic byway does a small injustice to this 78-mile drive between Solon and Sandy Bay Township, along the Canadian border. It's not just scenic (think moose) but also grandly historic. Benedict Arnold led troops through this wilderness on his spectacularly ill-fated mission to sack Quebec in 1775. A more lasting trail was blazed in the 19th century by Maine farmers who discovered a better market for livestock and produce in Canada than on their own coast.
The trip north today remains an excursion from the pastoral into the pine forests. You start out flanked by rolling farmland, then climb steadily into commercial timberland, the lair of moose. Logging trucks soon share the winding road with old school buses that ferry white-water enthusiasts to some of the most popular rafting in the East. Head with Raft Maine to The Forks (named after a river juncture) to get splendidly soaked on the Kennebec or Dead Rivers.
One don't-miss detour from The Forks is the hike to 90-foot Moxie Falls, one of Maine's highest cascades. It's just over a mile from the trailhead, which is two miles east of the river on Lake Moxie Road.
Continue your drive past Parlin Pond and the Appalachian Trail to the town of Jackman ("Last Gas in the United States"), one of Maine's famed fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling outposts. Just south of town is Attean Lake, where you can find the landing phone to call for a shuttle to the Attean Lake Lodge, a family-friendly resort on a densely forested island.
Moose Point Tavern, set on aptly named Big Wood Lake at what was once Henderson's Sporting Camps, makes for a fitting road trip finale. Enjoy the lake view as you relax with a pint of local lager and a plate of marvelously unfussy food, all the while plotting detours for the trip home.
Reader Comments
Registered users can add comments.
Registration is free, and just takes a moment.
Login or Register.