Today's forecast was iffy between light snow, a Wintry mix and rain. Initially I had read light snow in the morning turning to rain from south to north around lunchtime. Thus, I decided to head north thinking I'd rather hike in snow than rain. I chose Bridal Veil Falls which I had seen pictures of a few weeks ago and was anxious to see in Winter as it seemed quite spectacular. I recruited Laura and we headed out super early to try and beat the snow starting. Turns out the snow beat us. Around halfway up it kicked in and by the time we reached the trailhead it was quite steady. There is an out and back trail to the Falls described in the AMC White Mountains Guide. Coppermine Trail starts a tenth of a mile or so along Coppermine Road in Franconia at a parking area for 5-6 cars. You actually walk along the road for a couple tenths before it forks off into the woods. I had read it wasn't marked, but there was a sign at the parking area so we knew we were in the right place. The parking area was a sheet of ice, so we geared up with microspikes and attached our snowshoes to our packs just in case. At the fork off the road, there is a brown hiking sign, but no indication of the trail name at that point. The trail is a beautiful wander through the woods. 0.7 miles from the parking area there is actually a sign marking Coppermine Trail which shows 2.5 miles to the Falls. This is a little off as the 2.5 mile distance is from the parking area, not that sign. The trail gently climbs up and after a mile (from the parking) you join Coppermine Brook which you then follow all the way to the Falls. Just after 2 miles from the car a bridge crosses the brook and shortly after that you reach Coppermine Shelter. We took the opportunity here to change from our microspikes to snowshoes as the snow was filling in fast on the trail and snowshoes seemed a better choice for the moment. Just around the corner from the shelter is the piece de resistance. Bridal Veil Falls are just spectacular frozen. I'm sure they are pretty when not frozen as well, but frozen was what I wanted to see. You can walk almost right up to them and just take in all that beauty. A couple of groups passed us on our way in so we thought it may be busy but we had the area to ourselves. It was just spectacular. If it wasn't for the blowing snow and cold temps I could have stood there forever! We took some pictures and once we started to get too cold, we headed back. What was amazing on this hike was we could hear strong winds above us, it was really quite loud at times. Being in the valley though, we couldn't really feel them. Such a surreal setting. Just under a mile from the car the snow turned to freezing rain, I took a good digger on the hard packed trail when my snowshoe clipped a piece of ice (I'm fine) and we walked as quickly as we could to reach the warmth and dryness of the car. Both of us were just in awe of the day. Highly recommended hike, particularly in Winter.
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