Scenic New Hampshire Drive to Beede Falls
We headed up towards Sandwich New Hampshire with an eye for finding Beede Falls. All through this trip, there were signs of the color to come, with a tree branch or in a few cases, a whole tree in color.
A Scenic New Hampshire Search for early fall color
Now, I often tell you to get out there and explore or get lost. And if you’ve read my article on the art of getting lost, you know I don’t mean it literally. The purpose of these trips is to get out, explore and find new places that we haven’t seen before. So while today the goal was to find Beede Falls, the result was many new places found along the way.
First stop – Ossipee New Hampshire
We started the day on my favorite road to explore, Route 16, which leads up into New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Today we took Route 16B west off Route 16, and then caught Main Street into Center Ossipee. One thing we try never to pass up are antique shops and today we found Grant Hill Antiques on Main Street.
Now this is less like a formal antique store, and more like the ones I love to visit. It has the feel of a thrift store where everybody for miles around brings the treasures they’ve been collecting for quite a number of years, and it’s well worth your time to stop in there.
As we leave Grant Hill Antiques, we caught Route 25 north and west towards Tamworth where we caught Route 113 north. After that were smaller dirt roads, which I confess I didn’t write down, but as I look at my Gazetteer I would say possibly Hollow Hill Road, Cleveland Hill Road, to Brown Hill Road. It’s hard to say why I love dirt roads or back roads so much, but along this route, we finally ended up on Durgin Road. Durgin Road turns into Durgin Bridge Road, and you know what that means!
Next new place found – Durgin Covered Bridge
There’s not much to lead you to the Durgin Covered Bridge but it allows me to cross off one more covered bridge from my list. The first covered bridge was built sometime before 1844, but because of the violent river, the bridge was washed away four times between 1844 and 1869. The bridge has been maintained over the years and also served as a link in the underground slave railroad from Sandwich to North Conway. The bridge was repaired and strengthened between 1967 and 1968 and then it was completely rehabilitated in 1983.
Lisa got out the Gazetteer and plotted us a course From Durgin Road. South along Route 113 until we got to Center Sandwich New Hampshire. From there we took route 109 NW. to where we caught Sandwich Notch Road (closed in the winter)
You can see the remnants of old homesteads along this dirt road, and to the south, in the distance, you can just make out Squam Lake. We are just north of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and this area is usually very colorful during the second week of October. So I am a little surprised to see the tops of the trees on the south side of the road showing a little bit of color at the beginning of September.
I was getting ready to turn around and pulled into what I thought was an old dirt driveway, and it turned out to be the parking area for Beede Falls. As seen here, Beede Falls and Cow Cave are clearly visible and the walk-in is at most a quarter-mile. Anyone who is even slightly able to walk can make this trip, just stay on the trail. It’s a standard boreal forest that is dark, cool, and quiet. Once you arrive at Beede Falls, feel free to take off your shoes and soak your feet in the cold water of the pool at the bottom of the falls.
In conclusion…
You will find so many things to catch your attention if you just get off the main roads, and try some of the dirt roads in New England. All the roads that I talk about today were easy to navigate for a sedan even if the signage was at a minimum. This is why I always recommend a Gazetteer to help you plan your way and see the big picture and a GPS to tell you where on that map you are.
Jeff Foliage Folger
Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage
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Hi Jeff, Sounds like you ad a great trip. The waterfall at Beede is visible obviously no foliage in the way, no pun intended~ LOL
Ive been too ill to travel so am living vicariously through your journeys for now. Thank you for sharing!!
Cher Angelo Boston MA
-PS Can you recommend any sources you consider safe where folks who need traveling partners can discuss this?
DUH sorry I just say your foot notet re space for group tours etc.
That is a very tough one. Safety is paramount and if you are finding a traveling partner via forums, then I suggest you don’t. I think you have two options. First you can jump on an organized and certified tour. These are safer and they are monitored. This way you can make some friends on the tour. The second option is to arrange a trip with a friend that you know.
Those are the only truly safe ways of doing what you are thinking.