Flume George

One of the best places we went:

It takes 50 gallons of sap to make just 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Another thing I found fascinating was the exposed granite in several of the pictures. It’s called Table Rock, and this slab of granite is about 500 feet long and 75 feet wide.

I even took a picture of the thermometer because the temperature in this gorge was about 30° colder than it was at the top. You could actually feel the difference.

The picture of the Bowl doesn’t come close to showing its size. The cliffs surrounding it are about 80 feet high, while the Bowl itself is roughly 150 feet across and 40 feet deep. Standing next to it gives you a whole different perspective.

The Sentinel Pine Bridge has one of my favorite stories. Before the Revolutionary War, a massive white pine stood about 200 feet above the pool. The King of England claimed the tallest, straightest white pines for the Royal Navy because they made perfect ship masts. They were marked with the King’s Broad Arrow, a symbol carved into the bark to show they belonged to the Crown. That didn’t sit well with many of the colonists. The plan was to cut this tree down and float it downriver to England, but the Revolutionary War broke out before the king ever got his tree. It continued to stand watch over the pool for another 200 years. When the hurricane of 1938 finally brought it down, more than 90 feet of the trunk was used to build the bridge that now crosses the gorge.

The Flume Covered Bridge (we saw 2 bridges) was built in 1886 and was called a “kissing bridge.”

We also had a great view of Mount Liberty. Some people say it looks like George Washington lying in state, and once someone pointed it out, I could definitely see it. I also thought it was neat that the Appalachian Trail actually goes right over the summit of Mount Liberty at more than 4,000 feet.Read more