Lakeside retreat, part 3

Today I'll share a little more about our Saturday.  One thing we had hoped to do while away was to find a nice walking or hiking trail to enjoy.  After returning from L.L. Cote, we had a quick lunch and then spent some time thinking and talking about what we would like to do with the afternoon and evening.  We decided that we would have a campfire in the evening and that we would ask at the office about easy hikes nearby.

Mr. T returned from the office with a bundle of firewood and directions to Grafton Notch State Park, not far over the border into Maine, as well as Step Falls Preserve, located beyond the state park.  I quickly looked up the park online and determined that some of the areas were easily accessed in the time that we had -- it was nearly 2 pm by this time -- but other hikes were long and demanding.  Unfortunately he had forgotten the name of the other place (Step Falls) but Linda's directions were impeccable and brought us right to it.  We went there first, but a man waiting in his truck for his family noted that while it was easy enough, the trail was about 1.6 miles long and full of roots.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear, having fallen not that many days before.  So we reluctantly decided to leave that hike for another time and backtracked to the state park.

Screw Auger Falls was the first place we visited, and it was very pretty and easy to get around.  One of the trails was even handicap access! 

Mr. T clambered down over rocks to get some of these photos.

Some of these photos give a good idea as to why this area was named Screw Auger Falls.

We next stopped at Mother Walker Falls, but didn't find much to see there.
At Moose Cave we spent much more time, hiking along a trail that led down to the cave and finding many pretty sights along the way.  There was also an interesting moss garden, but we failed to get photos of that.

Kind of a blurry picture but I thought the leaves in the water were pretty.  They look like flakes of glitter to me.

Returning to our cottage, we reheated our zesty chicken cheese soup from the evening before.  While it heated, Mr. T worked on starting a fire in the outdoor fireplace.  We had thought to eat our soup in front of the fire, but it was rather cold and windy.  But the wind died down and we were able to finish our meal out there.

We enjoyed a lovely campfire

and some pretty sunset colors.

And that was our Saturday!