Mainely Maine

 … and a little New Hampshire. Truth be told, it was probably a 50/50 split. I love the rugged coastlines of Maine like no other place on earth, but as far as I'm concerned the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Androscoggin Valley has them beat by a country mile. We spent a good bit of time driving routes 16 & 26, jumping back and forth across the ME and NH border – passing through a lot of places with funny names that I'd like to return to someday. Pemigewasset. Umbagog. Nesowadnehunk. Allagash. Lots of incredible scenery. One of those areas where it's hard to take a bad shot of just about anything.

The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly Baxter State Park and Katahdin, just north of Millinocket. The drive *to* Baxter will never be forgotten, as we had to stumble out of bed at 3am and drive north on I-95 for four hours to try and make a 7am sunrise. Damn near missed it too. The last hour of the trip was slow going because the road had iced over, and you certainly don't want to screw up on the roads of the North Woods. You might not ever come back. One of the things I'll never forget is seeing the tree species change along 95 as the faint glow of daybreak became brighter. Suddenly, everything was logging trucks, fir and balsam with a touch of frost on them. Amazing. Should've pulled over to grab a few frames, but had to keep moving in order to beat the sun. I have yet to travel out west to have a comparison to the giant parks there, but Baxter felt amazingly vast and immense (201,108 acres / 314 square miles). Finally a "real" park, complete with bears, moose, and a real danger of getting lost if you're not careful. Can't wait to go back someday for more than a day trip.

We were lucky enough to nail peak foliage right on the head again this year, and the overabundance of fall colors was stunning. Several attempts to the top of Mt. Washington (6,288 ft.) were made, but due to 80+mph winds and white-out conditions at the summit, they'd only let folks go up to the 4,000 ft mark. I was pretty bummed about that, but figured the mountain isn't going anywhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be back again next year, although Mary did NOT like the cliffhanger drive up the "auto-road"

All in all, it was a great trip. I've tried to select some of the better shots of the almost 1700 images that I grabbed during the week. I know I'm leaving a lot out here, but it's late and for some reason this post has taken me forever to get out the door. Hope you enjoy the images!

Full gallery can be found here.