We accomplished yet another of the entries on Daphne’s Summer Adventures – 2024 checklist: the Flume Gorge Waterfall Hike.

Flume Gorge is part of the Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire, and is a short 40-minute drive from our house. I mean, it’s “a short 40-minute drive” for normal people.
Naturally these things take me way longer…

The first reason for this would be because my venerable “Bag of Holding” backpack must’ve passed through an anti-magic field at some point, because one of its straps was completely and inexplicably torn off. So our first stop was to Lahout’s in Littleton for a replacement backpack, preferably one more suited to our new hiking/camping misadventures and less designed for toting character sheets and a Dungeon Master Guide.

We also stopped at the Crumble Bum Bakery right next door to Lahout’s, where we ordered a confetti macaron and a ham & swiss croissant as potty barter. Daphne wasn’t exactly a fan of the macaron, but I’m told the croissant sandwich was quite good.

Then, sufficiently packed and fed, it was time to get Flumin’. And, for my first trick, I drove us unerringly to the wrong parking area.

Apple Maps was extremely convincing in its assertion that this was, in fact, Flume Gorge. So we parked and perambulated, looking around unsuccessfully for the state park entrance.

Eventually we came upon a sign that sternly admonished us against going any further, lest we steal the cost of entry into Flume Gorge park. It explained that we must first buy tickets at the Flume Gorge Visitor Center.

Another quick Apple Maps search showed us that the Visitor Center was…an 11-minute drive away.

Upon arriving at the proclaimed “Flume Gorge Visitor Center” we found it to be positively nothing of the sort and that Apple Maps had instead provided us with directions to the Cannon Mountain ticketing booths. Not only do they NOT sell tickets for entry into Flume Gorge there, they were also quite obviously closed for the season.

Strike two.

At this point Apple Maps got benched and we gave the nod to Google Maps instead, which successfully led us to the correct location. (Turned out to be the left turn just after the one that Apple Maps suggested originally.)

I will say at the outset that I was pretty shocked at the ticket price to get into this state park. But then again this is New Hampshire…so I suppose it’s kinda par for the (untaxed) course.

That said, it is an absolutely beautiful spot. The trails leading up to the gorge itself were quite nice, and had such helpful signage!

There were several wooden bridges throughout the hiking path that provided lovely vistas as well as moments of sheer panic when Daphne would balance her talker on the handrails.

We eventually arrived at the titular gorge, which had a long balcony built along the sides of the granite face.

Daphne was an incredibly good sport about trudging up all these steps and ramps, and did her best to humor her parents and their lame ideas.
But then, suddenly, the whole thing made sense when she came upon a particular waterfall that absolutely blew her mind.

This proved to be a turning point in the day.

Daphne was so excited after seeing that waterfall that she spent the rest of the day in a fantastic mood, causing Jen and I to realize just how much we’d missed our happy little girl.

Daphne was also amazed when we told her that yes, she was absolutely allowed pick up and keep a stick of her very own.

Around this point we were roughly halfway through the 2.2 mile hike, and the rest of the way down was along a stone and gravel path. Daphne made the executive decision that she absolutely must step on each and every rock on the way down which, while certainly entertaining, significantly extended our hike time…

I’d like to think she recalled, once upon a time, that the two of us would occasionally go indoor rock climbing after I picked her up from school. Regardless, I was quite proud of her burgeoning bouldering skills.

The final leg of the hike definitely bordered on difficult, as we were all getting tired…

But we eventually made our way back down to the visitor center, had a drink and a potty break, then headed home…tired and happy.

As for Flume Gorge, it was a fun and lovely hike. The trail boards and steps are all in fantastic shape (I’d wager that’s where a lot of that $$$ goes), and while it was relatively crowded it rarely felt like we were shoulder-to-shoulder with other people along the trail.

When we got home I checked AllTrails to see their reviews and to find more information about Flume Gorge and was surprised to see that it’s actually rated a “Moderate” difficulty hike.

So I was pretty proud of us for completing it. (Even if it did say the average time was 1 hr 8 minutes and it took us a little over 3.) And I was particularly proud of Daphne since her little legs have to work much harder than ours, yet she was still happy and smiling the whole way.

She also didn’t have a single accident on Saturday, which is the first time that’s happened in weeks.

After we put Daphne to bed that night, Jen and I agreed that it had been quite some time since we had a fun and overall happy family outing like that one. We compared it to our trip to Saratoga Springs the week before and while that was unquestionably a wonderful time, it was still fraught with worry. Concerns over Daphne having accidents somewhere in such a nice hotel, whether she was behaving for Grammy, what she was going to eat, if the adjoining rooms would complain about her stimming/noise, whether the drive home would be a nightmare, etc.
No, that trip was more for Jen and me to get away for a few short hours to the ballet. Saturday’s felt like a family outing that didn’t end horribly.

Which was long, LONG overdue.

j.s.