More photos of Welch-Dickey Loop
It started raining mid-afternoon on Friday, continued through the night, and was forecast to clear up Saturday afternoon. When I woke it was overcast but not raining. Unsure what to expect with the fickle weather here, I decided to take a drive instead of risking a storm on a mountain ledge somewhere.
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| Scenic overlook on Kancamagus Highway, around 2400 ft. |
Conway is a little over an hour Northeast of Campton and is the choice destination for White Mountain tourists. I had originally planned to stay there but couldn't find a campground for under $900 per month -- pretty steep for a patch of grass and 30amps. I'm glad it didn't work out.
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| It's Laconia Bike Week -- They are everywhere! |
Because there's a few mountain ranges between the two towns, the most direct route is the Kancamagus Highway, a 34-mile scenic byway through the White Mountains, not unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway. Shortly after I left the sky cleared and it was a beautiful, sunny drive up through the mountains.
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| The rocky summit of Welch Mountain |
The congestion in Conway immediately aggravated me so I turned around and headed home so I could retrieve my hiking gear and find a trail. Right around the corner from the campground is the Welch-Dickey Loop, a four-mile round trip that cross that crosses two rocky summits.
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| View from Welch Mountain (2605 ft) |
The trail begins in the forest and climbs gently first to the rocky ledge of Welch Mountain, which provides stunning views of Waterville Valley and the surrounding mountains. Here the trail continues up and around the rocky face of the mountain, which was fun to climb, initially. Then I reached a point that climbed very steeply up the rock face, unnavigable to me (and I imagine a few others).
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| Much scarier going back down! |
At the base of the rock was a trail marker so I knew I was at the right place, but did they really expect people to scale this rock? Yes, the trail did in fact ascend the crag and continue down the other side, but instead I returned to the trail head the way I came, defeated by yet another personal impasse.
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| The crag that bagged me |
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