Sinéad and I made a return trip to Arethusa falls. She wasn't able to go with me the first time I hiked and had been very interested to visit it herself! We made an early morning departure to better our odds of getting a parking spot. We were in luck! There weren't many cars when we arrived, but there was a line that immediately followed us in. We geared up and made our way to the trail head.
I didn't grab any photos during the hike this time around. We did, however, stay right on the Arethusa Falls Trail the whole way up and left Bemis Brook Trail for the return. It was a far more enjoyable hike than my original visit! It wasn't too long before we arrived at the main attraction. There was hardly anyone there, so I quickly setup to take a people free image of the falls.
Arethusa Falls
A beautiful reward to our climb!
The rain from the previous front had supplied ample water for our visit. We sat and enjoyed the falls for quite some time, but made sure to squeeze in a couple photo-ops as well.
The area at the base of the falls was starting to get very crowded. Some of those from further out-of-town than ourselves were all too willing to infringe on anything resembling another's personal space if they thought someone else might have the better view. (An all-too-common characteristic, and incredibly irritating facet of a semi-local geographical stereotype.) Wanting to preserve the positive mood we made our leave and headed back down the trail.
Coliseum falls
We stopped for a quick snack here. We climbed out to a nice rock surface in the middle of the falls and soaked in the location while taking in some nourishment. It was a wonderful spot where the sound of the rushing falls that surrounding us, drowned out the rest of the noise from the rest of the world. I didn't take any photos of this location this time around.
Bemis Falls
This was our next stop, and is still one of my favorite parts of this hike. I set myself up for another run at taking shots of this great little spot. I didn't come out empty handed either! Was able to walk away with a nice mix of imagery this time around. I was also far happier with how smooth the water turned out. I'm sure I'll still be revisiting this post in the future!
That pretty well wrapped up our photos from the hike. We headed into North Conway and decided we were in need of some actual sustenance. We grabbed a (too) large sub at Boston Brothers and ate as much as we possibly could!
It was starting to get later in the day, but I was still wanting to take in 1 more location before heading home. Sinéad agreed we could stop so long as it was something quick. We decided to go to the obvious, and slightly on the way home, solution...
The Basin
This was a great and easy way to wrap up our wonderful 4th of July day of hikes! We stopped long enough to grab a couple shots and also the video below. It was getting later in the day, so it was not quite as crowded as we had expected it to be. A beautiful end to a pretty great adventure!