Today’s travel took us across Vermont to Lincoln, New Hampshire, where we’ll spend the next three nights. Lincoln, New Hampshire, is ideally located for the activities we wanted to pursue. Regrettably, the weather is unseasonably hot and humid. After checking into our motel, we sat out behind our room along the babbling river, relaxing after the short 118 mile drive into the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

We opted to hike to Kinsman Falls in Franconia Notch State Park this afternoon; we were fortunate to get a parking spot at the trailhead as all the facilities in the state park were packed with people.

Near the beginning of the trail was the Basin, a granite pothole, 20 feet in diameter, located at the base of a beautiful waterfall.

It is believed to have been eroded 15,000 years ago while the North American ice sheet was melting. The Basin has been smoothed by small stones and sand, whirled around by the Pemigewasset River. There were, seemingly, people everywhere.

Waterfalls and smooth granite were adjacent to the trail for the entire hike. The trail follows the stream the entire hike up the mountain, so there were many other unnamed cascades and waterfalls along the trail in the White Mountain National Forest.

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The hike to Kinsman Falls is supposedly a relatively easy hike at only .6 mile, and a 297′ elevation gain. However, root “ladders” predominated the trail and made hiking very difficult for those of us with bad ankles, knees, and hamstrings.

Kinsman Falls has a 22′ total drop, the water source is Cascade Brook. Along the trail, a small sign “Kinsman Falls” is hung from a tree and we found ourselves suddenly standing along a steep hill looking down at the waterfall. I managed to get close by taking a small switchback route to the base of the falls.

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The hike back was downhill, and much easier, but we were both soaking wet with perspiration from the heat and humidity of an afternoon with a heat index of 97°.

Back at the motel, a quick dip in the pool helped cool us before settling in for the evening.