Artists Bluff

Starting from the Bald Mountain trailhead, the Artists Bluff trail takes you up a short but steep 1.3-mile loop path to a beautiful rocky overlook of Franconia Notch State Park. This is the perfect hike to find incredible views of the park and some amazing foliage in autumn. If you're short on time, you can head directly back down the way you came for an approximately 0.7-mile hike.

We parked across the street at the Echo Lake Beach parking lot on Profile Rd (off I-93) and then just walked across the street to the Bald Mountain Trailhead. Shortly along the trail, there's a fork in the path that's a little bit unclear as to which way to go. If you stay right, you will arrive at Artists Bluff the quickest, going to the left would take you along the Bald Mountain Trail. 

I've found that the best time to visit Artists Bluff is during sunset. I visited right after a rainstorm, just after the clouds cleared. It provided some perfect light over the mountains to add to the foliage in the foreground. Any time of day will give you amazing photos.

The hike itself is short enough that you can quickly shoot a sunset and not have to worry about hiking back down the mountain in the dark, it only took us about 10-15 minutes to get back down.