An iffy forecast for the three-day weekend didn't keep visitors away from the White Mountains, and the highways, byways, sidewalks and trails were as they always are for the early October holiday: very, very busy.

A little bit of everything greeted those who made the trip into the hills, including overnight snow at the higher elevations. The Mount Washington Observatory reported that several inches of the cold, white stuff fell in the early hours of Monday.

“In spite of the preceding week's dismal weather forecast, this was one of the best Columbus Day weekends we've had in recent years,” Howie Weymss, general manager of the Mount Washington Auto Road reported on Monday. He added that while it wasn't a record breaker — rain, fog, and snow saw to that — it was “a wonderfully strong end to an excellent summer.”

“With the holiday weekend coming so early this year, we expect strong business through the next weekend, too,” Wemyss said.

He's not alone in that prediction. On Monday afternoon Barbara Kelly of the North Conway Comfort Inn & Suites said the property was sold out, which just about every White Mountain hospitality property is every year for Columbus Day weekend, then added, “but we're equally busy this week, which is a surprise.”

Susan Logan of the Conway Scenic Railroad said it was a sold-out weekend on the trains, too, with the railroad's passenger cars full on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

“We added an additional passenger car to the Notch Train for all four days, and still sold out, with even more people wanting tickets,” she said. “The far domestic market has been very strong, especially from Texas and California, but the Midwest and Southern states are visiting in significant numbers, too, along with the Canadians.” She added that the group market from the United Kingdom is up significantly, too.

In North Woodstock, Jim Fadden of Fadden's Maple Syrup and General Store said they had a very successful weekend, with visitors from almost every U.S. state, and that their guest book “reads like the roster sheet at the United Nations with countries listed from all over the world.”

“I dare say,” he continued, “that over the past several weeks I've acquired foreign relations experience equal to that of Hillary Clinton while entertaining and sharing the art of maple syrup production with people from the UK, Ireland, France, Israel, Australia, Bolivia, Japan, Philippines, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Russia, just to name a few that come to mind.”

In Sugar Hill, Harman's Cheese & Country Store has seen the influx of international visitors, too.

“We had a very busy Saturday — visitors from all over New Hampshire, the USA, Canada, and world. The store seemed to be always full of people — over the past few years, the Saturday of Columbus Day Weekend has been the busiest day of the year for our in-store sales and it was this year, too,” Brenda Aldrich said.

Marti Mayne,spokesperson for the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, said that she was getting reports from businesses that the weekend was “fabulous.”

“The foliage has been spectacular this year,” she noted, quite a change from last year when the region was still recovering from Tropical Storm Irene. “All businesses I have heard from to date are reporting increased sales and-or sell outs.”

On Saturday at the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot in Pinkham Notch, cars from Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois shared space with vehicles from throughout the Northeast, and on Friday on the Cannon Mountain aerial tramway, a couple from San Diego, Calif., chatted with a couple from Lincolnshire, England.

In October, the world comes to the White Mountains.

syoungknox@newstote.com