Fall Foliage Weekend 2012 Day#2 The Pumpkin People

On our second day of our foliage trip (read about day #1 here), we had to check out of our room at Nordic Village by 11am.  It was foggy and seemed like it might rain so we decided to look for the Pumpkin People. Residents and businesses in Jackson New Hampshire (and neighboring towns in the Mount Washington Valley)  make displays out of pumpkins. Some of them are very impressive!

 That year, 2012,  it was the 25th anniversary of the Pumpkin People.  There were tons of locations, far too many Pumpkin People Displays to post them all. I will just post some of my favorites here.

We stopped at several businesses in Jackson to get photos of Pumpkin People. It's like a scavenger hunt and we tried to get them all!

The display at Flossies General Store

I also found this grasshopper willing to model for me on a flower...

The Snowflake Inn had a pretty cool display of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

This is what a typical street in Jackson looks like.

It's such a gorgeous place! We drove around looking for Pumpkin People and I took as many photos of the scenery as I could.

Eagle Mountain House had Hocus Pocus witches

They also had this pretty decorated area.

Carter Notch Inn had Redneck Pumpkin People, in a camouflage truck, drinking beers!

We stopped at Jackson Falls. The Falls are on Carter Notch Rd. The Wildcat River runs down the steep hill and there is plenty of spots to hang out along the falls.

 

This photo was taken at the end of the hill, off the bridge looking downstream.

 

The Wentworth had Leprechauns hanging around out front.

Our next destination was up Pinkham Notch to Wildcat Mountain and to the Mount Washington Auto Road. We wanted to see foliage and these locations were on the Pumpkin People list. It was about a fifteen minute drive to get to Wildcat Mountain and this is what we saw when we got there...

Wildcat Mountain seemed closed and we couldn't find any Pumpkin People anywhere so we went up the road to the Great Glen Trails/ Mt Washington Auto Road. I think tickets to both attractions are in the same building. There are hiking and biking trails on one side and the auto road is across the highway.

They had a pumpkin people display!

Ya see what they did there? That pumpkin family is looking at the Old Man in the Mountain... made of pumpkins. Genius!

We could not see Mt Washington

There's a car coming down the auto road. I don't know what kind of views there were in the fog?

We headed south down Rt 16, back towards Jackson.

The Red fox Bar & Grille had this Thriller themed Pumpkin People display. It was great!

After we got away from the Zombies, we got back in the van and our next stop was at Story Land. Their display was pretty cool too!!

We drove next to route 302 up towards Crawford Notch.

It wasn't as foggy over by Attitash 

We stopped on 302 at scenic spot where you can view Mt Washington in the distance.. Not this day you couldn't! We did see some pretty wildflowers though.

We stopped at Willey Pond.. I love that place so we always stop there.

Then we drove by the Mt Washington Hotel and Resort.   

It was beautiful . As usual.

I don't know where our next stop was, I know it was further north up 302. I read there was a waterfall and swimming hole past Bretton Woods. I don't remember it's name now but we found it, parked and went for a walk in the woods.

We were walking for a few minutes and I realized I was really creeped out! It was very pretty but it was starting to get dark. I was very nervous we would encounter a black bear or a moose! After a few minutes of walking and not seeing a waterfall, we turned around and walked back to the van. 

We started our trip home. We stopped at several places along the way home, mostly in North Conway. We got all the Pumpkin People crossed off the list that year. All but a few places that didn't have their displays up for whatever reason. We drove home in the dark feeling like we had accomplished something. That was the first and last time we managed to cross them all of the list.

If you are interested, I have a whole set of Pumpkin People photos from over the years Here.

I also have hundreds of fall foliage photos from 2008-2012 Here.

I hope you enjoyed these photos from our 2012 trip. I can't wait to go again this year, Hopefully I wont wait 2 years to edit this years photos!

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