Franconia Notch State Park, located in the heart of the popular White Mountain National Forest. Franconia Notch is a spectacular mountain pass traversed by a unique parkway which extends from the Flume Gorge at the south to Echo Lake at the north.

We decided to give hiking a try by taking on a seemingly easy trail. We packed our backpacks with a jacket (which came in very handy coz it got quite cool in some parts of the forests and extremely windy and cold at the peaks), bottles of water, a bag of pistachio nuts and a muffin...I needed some sustenance through the physically challenging trails.

We went on the Bald mountain and Artists Bluff trail. Bald Mountain is a small peak at the head of Franconia Notch that offers extensive views. Artists Bluff is a ledge about halfway down the end of the ridge that offers views through Franconia Notch.

This is the kind of terrain have to walk through. Many parts of the hike are very steep and rocky with narrow paths that are very close to the edge.

From the top of Artists Bluff at 2020 feet!! Its a view of Echo Lake at the foot of Cannon Mountain. The winds were very very strong, we had to be careful to not go too near the cliff edge coz with the strong winds, we could easily be blown off the edge!!

This is the wall we had to literally climb on hands and feet to get to the top of Artists Bluff! After going up and getting down fm this wall (the getting down was really hard!) I realised that I am NO rock climber!!

TOP OF THE WORLD! not quite...just top of Bald Mountain with elevation of 2340ft. The winds up there was incredible, check out our unsteady stance. I could only hold that "outstretched arm" position for a few seconds just enough to take the shot, then I had to get down.

- notice the ski slopes behind us on Cannon Mountain.