We loved our stay in the White Mountains!
They stretch from New Hampshire to Maine, and include the Presidential range, part of the Appalachian trail, and the highest peak in the North East of the United States, which is Mount Washington. Skiers will be familiar with several of the resorts here, such as Wildcat and Loon which are especially popular with Bostonians.
We visited Loon on the Memorial Weekend (aka the ‘official’ beginning of the summer season in the US – yay!), to spend the day in the Adventure Park which is found at the base.
The principal attractions are a short zip-line across the river, a bungee-trampoline, a free-climbing structure, a climbing wall with several levels of difficulty, rental bikes and a gondola skyride to the top of the mountain.
It took us just under a couple of hours from Bethel, where we were staying, to reach Loon, so we intended to make the most of our day. We got C straight onto the trampoline – he’s done it several times before and loves it. Then we let him have a crack at the climbing-wall. C loved his first climbing session. Although it was tricky at first, he soon got into the swing of it. In fact I think his favourite part was when he would get stuck a few metres up, or about a quarter of the way. Then he would just let go and push himself off, and the cable would lower him gently to the ground. I had a go myself and nearly made the top, but my arms ached for several days afterwards!
The trampoline is always fun, especially when it’s included in your ticket and is unlimited! C went on it about half-a-dozen times, and by the end of it he had learned how to do somersaults all by himself, thanks to the awesome instructor who very patiently taught him the trick – kudos to the Loon team!
C was too little for the Zip-line unfortunately, but we did it and loved it. It’s only a “there-and-back” line, rather than a full trail, but still a bit of fun. They do have an Aerial Forest Adventure Park you can go on too, but unfortunately it was still closed when we went.
The sun shone all day long, but the temperature was very low and we could still see a bit of snow left behind from the winter. Naturally, C and I ran to it and had a good slide down the snowy hill (wet bottoms for us both!) before going up Loon Mountain on the Gondola. For the record, C says this was his favourite bit of the whole day – sweet.
The café at the top was Caribbean themed (baffled me why they chose this theme…) but I had a good warming bowl of chilli and the views over the mountains and the lake were truly stunning.
Nothing like being on top of a mountain on a crisp sunny day, is there? The views were overwhelming, the air smelled spring-fresh and we were still early enough in the season to have most of the place to ourselves. After a good run around, and snapping a few photos, we made our way back down the mountain and spend the afternoon climbing more walls and jumping on the trampoline! We were too tired by the end of it to rent bikes, but it was included in the ticket-price.
We had a fab time at Loon Mountain, and the very patient and friendly staff made our experience even better than it could’ve been – 5 stars all around!
Prices: There are a few bundles that you can buy, but we paid $43 each adult and C paid $25. That included a zip-line for each adult, all-day trampolining and climbing, and bike rental.
Where is Loon, and how to get there:
Just 2 hours from Boston, Loon Mountain is the perfect day out for families looking for a bit of fresh mountain air, and kidfun added to the mix. We were staying in Bethel (Maine) and it took us 1h30.
We are getting addicted to a bit of mountain fun. What is your local country getaway?
