Hart Family Vacation 2024 (Day 5 - New Hampshire & Vermont)

Day 5 - we woke up to more great weather (thank you, Lord!) and hit the road, looking forward to a fun day of exploring New Hampshire & Vermont. 

We drove to Conway, NH (just over 2 hours) for our first stop - Walmart, ha! A few of us ran in to grab a few snacks, water and medicine. After Walmart we continued into Conway to find 2 covered bridges in town. 

Saco River Covered Bridge

It's the army green family!

Swift River Covered Bridge

From this point, we backtracked to Kancamagus Highway (Rt 112). This 35 mile drive travels along the Swift River with great river views, waterfalls and hikes. Reportedly, it is a great place to spot wildlife (no moose sightings for us). We did this drive on our New England vacation in 2016 but knew we were tight on time that day so we didn't make many stops...definitely didn't explore. Today, we planned to spend more time along the drive - being intentional about making stops and enjoying the scenery. We were blessed with small crowds along the way too.

Kancamagus Highway

Albany Covered Bridge

Lower Falls Recreation Site

Someone had left this bottle on the rocks - lots of butterflies flying around it!

Rocky Gorge Scenic Area

Sabbaday Falls

We were able to find 2 letterboxes at this stop. Matt hunted for them while the rest of us enjoyed the walk and the falls. He wasn't able to pinpoint the location for the 2nd box so we started heading back to the parking lot, then Kaitee and Maddie saw something that they recognized from the clues...and quickly found the box!

Sugar Hill Scenic Vista

CL Graham Wangan Overlook

Once at the end of the scenic drive near Lincoln, NH (sadly, no moose sightings), we drove north to Littleton, NH (about 45 minutes). We passed through Franconia Notch State Park (which we visited in 2016). We talked about riding the Cannon Mtn Aerial Tramway to the top of the mountain (they had shut down the tramway on the day we were there in 2016 due to high winds) but decided to pass on it this trip as we had a few things on our itinerary that we really wanted to do instead (more time along Kancamagus and Littleton).

While researching for this vacation, I came across the "World's Longest Candy Counter" in Littleton, NH. This stop was north of our original route and would add 30 minutes of drive time to our day (plus the stop). Once I did a Google search, I knew that we needed to visit Littleton. 

I told Matt and the twins about this town...but kept the surprise from Kaitee. She is a huge fan of the book, Pollyanna, by Eleanor H Porter. She also loves the 1960 movie, starring Hayley Mills. When I was Googling pictures of the candy counter at Chutters, I came across other things in Littleton - including a Pollyanna statue! Come to find out Eleanor H Porter was from Littleton! They hold an annual Pollyanna recognition day (which we missed by 5 days!). We found a parking spot and walked to the statue - all watching Kaitee to see her recognition and reaction. She LOVED it!!

So fun! We couldn't help but smile as we walked around town. So much color and whimsy. We loved the shops along Main Street. 

As we walked back up to the Main Street area (from Riverwalk Covered Bridge), we saw this at the crosswalk. If you stop, look & wave...you will smile, too (and possibly a giggle). Guaranteed!

Like a kid in a candy shop! Full Joy...

The World's Longest Candy Counter. We loved looking at the variety of flavors, shapes and types of candy. I will say that my OCD would never allow me to work here...I would spend all day, every day lining up the jars so the labels all line up perfectly. To look at the pictures now, I still twitch! 😬

Once in the van, started heading towards our next stop, filling up with gas before leaving town. We enjoyed trying our new candy purchases (didn't want the chocolate to melt!!). What a great little town!

East Corinth was our next stop. This little town is one of 5 hamlets that make up Corinth (which has a total population @ 1400). East Corinth is the home of filming for Beetlejuice. Kaitee knew about this stop and was pretty excited. I think it exceeded her expectations! This stop was all for Kaitee (and Matt) as she and Matt were the only ones who have even watched the movie! First pictures shown at each location are movie location (pictures from Google searches), subsequent pictures are current day..

The red covered bridge in the movie was made specifically for the movie (the covered bridge portion). They repurposed the covered bridge at one of the ski resorts a few miles outside of town (see pictures below).

The red covered bridge from Beetlejuice is now located at Northeast Slopes Ski Area @ 3 miles outside of town, off VT-25 S. 

We left East Corinth and headed to our hotel in Burlington (75 min drive). What a beautiful view ahead of us!

After checking in to our hotel, I caught up on laundry while Matt ran to pick up dinner. He stopped to take a picture of this beautiful sunset. Another wonderful day of exploring our magnificent country!

Favorites from Day 5

Matt - Lower Falls, Littleton

Becki - Lower Falls, Littleton

Kaitee - Pollyanna, Beetlejuice, finding letterbox 

Will - taking pictures along Kancamagus, Chipmunks, Stop/Look/Wave, Chutters
Maddie - Sabbaday Falls (finding letterbox), Littleton