Ed McGuirk , Apr 06, 2002; 06:15 a.m.
Yusong :
There is a fantastic spot in northern New Hampshire for wildflowers with mountains on the horizon (though not usually covered in snow at that time of the year). Go to Sugar Hill, NH in mid-June for the lupine festival. From about June 10th to 17th there are fields of lupines that bloom beneath the White Mountains. In Sugar Hill on Sunset Road there is a 12 acre field completely filled lupines that has Cannon Mountain and Mt. Washington in the background. These lupines come in shades of blue, purple, white and pink. The attached image was taken at sunrise in the lupine field on Sunset Road in Sugar Hill. The back roads around Sugar Hill contain a number of spots where there are large concentrations of lupines, some strategically located near red barns and white churches. This spot is not only great for grand landscape shots, but is also macro photography heaven, the dew drops and little insects on the lupines also make great subjects. But be careful, one morning at sunrise I was intently photgraphing the sunrise and moved towards a tree to include it in my shot. I startled a mother moose and calf who I did not realize were on the other side of the tree and they ran right in front of me. Of course having a 17-35mm lens on my camera with an ND grad and polarizing filter made it a little tough to get a good shot of the moose.
About 5 miles away is Franconia Notch state park where there are lots of nice waterfall opportunities, my favorites include The Basin, the Falling Waters Trail (Stair Falls and Cloudland Falls are both wonderful)and the Flume.
This area in early to mid-June can't be beat. To do grand landscape photography in New England requires a little more work than in the national parks out west, but Sugar Hill is one of the better locations in New England for the kind of photography you are interested in.
Sugar Hill Lupines
