The leaves in Franconia Notch had peaked before thousands of visitors packed parking lots at the Flume Gorge and made their way up hiking trails over the holiday weekend. But that didn’t seem to bother some.
Satish Kasarapu came from Boston to hike Artist’s Bluff Trail because he’d heard about the panoramic view. The summit delivered, he said.
“New Hampshire, the people are so blessed,” Kasarapu said as he came off the trail with friends. “They have good mountains and…natural kinds of views. Boston, we have a concrete jungle.”
It was images on Instagram that drew Kavya Mattam, a high school chemistry teacher in Connecticut, to the trail. It’s no wonder. There were more than 19,000 images and reels on Instagram Monday, some with more than a half-million views.
“It's so close [to] Connecticut, so you don't want to miss that,” she said. “I was honestly expecting more colors, but I think we're a little too late. But then it was pretty. It was gorgeous.”
Artist’s Bluff Trail has made headlines in recent years for the thousands of people it draws during foliage season – and the trash they leave behind. New Hampshire State Parks made a few changes this year to manage crowds during peak weeks.
The 1.5-mile trail was one-way to avoid bottlenecks and there were more bathrooms and trash cans at the trail head. Staff reminded people to hike out what they hiked in. The agency also opened the pub at Cannon Mountain’s base lodge to alleviate the pressure on other lunch sites in the notch.
Jace Wirth, general manager of Franconia Notch State Park in Cannon Mountain, said visitors came off the trail happy. That’s a sign the changes helped, he said.
Alon and Hadar Shklarnik, of Israel, saw the summit on YouTube and hiked the loop with their daughter, Alama. They noticed the leaves looked less bright than they did on the video – but didn’t care.
“This is the first leaves that we saw, so for us, it was great,” Alon Shklarnik said.
Rebecca Cushing and Andy Laverty, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, camped in the White Mountains during the weekend and hiked to the bluff Sunday with their dog Freshie. He was the star of their summit photos.
Roxanne and Ian Edmilao, of Kentucky, had the trail nearly to themselves Monday morning because the rain kept most people away. They were surprised to see waterbottles, jackets, and trash left behind at the peak.
“But the view is so perfect,” Roxanne Edmilao said.
The rain drew rather than deterred Le Min and his wife June Hou, of Boston, to the parking lot at the trail head Monday. The wet leaves looked more vibrant than they did under Sunday’s sun, Hou said.
“And the rain is so fall and autumn," she said. “We love the moody part of it.”
New Hampshire State Park’s spokesperson Jennifer Karnan said the one way-loop up to Artist’s Bluff would end this weekend unless the large crowds continue.
