I went hiking in New Hampshire (again) for Memorial Day.  (It’s kinda addictive.  And so beautiful!) This time I choose a trail of moderate difficulty, about 5 miles, which features great views and a waterfall.  It was well worth the time! 

A mushroom that was growing! I apologize for the lack of sharpness in these images; I was using an older lens I haven’t touched in a long time and apparently I need a refresher course in it!

The beautiful woods! It had been raining that morning – and it rained after I finished my hike – and the sun was playing peek-a-boo, which led to absolutely divine colors.

A path to adventure!  I did this hike by myself, which is perhaps not the best idea – I am both embarrassingly bad at finding the bright yellow and blue trail markers and fantastically clumsy.  But it’s so much fun to be alone in nature that I can’t resist taking off for the mountains on a free day.

A bridge! All those nice lines!

Trees that have adapted to an unusual degree.

This was about a quarter way through the hike.  The rain made everything wet and muddy; I loved watching the water drip off the rocks.  (And there were a lot of rock features!)

I call these toad-faced tree mushrooms.  I have no idea what they are actually called but I love them.

The view from Frankenstein cliffs was breathtaking! The play of light with the storm clouds on one side and the sunshine on the other was stunning.

Just for scale, one of those tiny blue dots is my car! I was sitting right on the edge of cliff to eat lunch.  I don’t know why, but I love being on the edges of sharp drop-offs.

More of the view! It’s definitely worth the hike and the best part is I was sitting on a large, flat rock outlay, so I was quite comfortable eating lunch and enjoying the view.  It was about halfway through, so the perfect place to stop.

The final awe-inspiring mountain scene.  It reminded me more than a little of the opening scene of “The Sound of Music”; thankfully I resisted the impulse to burst into song.

Leaves! The trees here are so different from the ones in Texas; I love their large, bright foliage.

This root was just the coolest thing!

A water feature! I had to prune my pictures pretty sharply for the blog, but this was a water-heavy trail – so many creeks, streams, and bubbling brooks that I could hardly believe it!

More water flowing down rocks.  I thought this was the waterfall at first, and was very excited for the water but disappointed about not seeing what I imagined a waterfall to look like.

Then I came upon the actual Arethusa waterfall and it was everything I had hoped it to be and more! This picture unfortunately doesn’t quite convey the scale of the waterfall, but it was quite tall and loud and I was so excited to see it that I may have squealed in a childlike manner.

An old-fashioned wooden bridge on the way down.

My favorite water feature.  The golden log – I don’t know why it was golden – was the perfect topping to this miniature waterfall.

Back at my car! I broke in my new Oboz hiking boots on this hike and I was astounded at how waterproof they actually were.  All that darker brown on them is mud – but look how incredibly white and clean my feet are! At the end of the trail, I was deliberately splashing through the middle of puddles to see if my feet would get wet and they stayed pretty darn dry!