Detour #15: Kancamagus Highway, USA
If there’s a surefire way to fall for New England in the fall, it’s a drive down the Kancamagus Highway.
Linking the ski resort towns of Conway and Lincoln, the road winds it way through over 30 miles of New Hampshire’s White Mountain Forest. And for a few weeks every year it’s almost as dense with ‘leaf-peepers’ as it is with leaves.
Thousands come to witness the foliage turn from green to orange, ochre and red. And, as you climb up to almost 2,500 feet you’ll get to witness the full range of vibrant autumn colours. The lower parts may only just be turning when the trees at the top have shed their leaves and the first snowfall arrives.
As for the road, it has what many Europeans think a rarity in the USA, corners. Plenty of them. The steep climb (and the descent from the top) makes it popular with cyclists (who like to ‘crank the Kanc’), while the many opportunities to park up and take a walk in the woods, or simply soak in the views means that the pace of traffic can be quite pedestrian.
So maybe it’s not the road to test your supercar to the limits, but, in the fall especially, you will struggle to find one more photogenic.
Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography Matt Lavasseur / Aaron Burden / Unsplash
Roadbook
Class: Mountain pass
Name: Route 112 Kancamagus Highway
Route: Conway to Lincoln, New Hampshire
Country: USA
Distance: 36 miles
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