Randolph, New Hampshire

During spring, summer and fall there is a road that allows you to drive to the top of Cathedral Ledge. In winter the road is closed off to vehicles so reaching the top requires a 1.7 mile hike. Once at the top, there is a fenced in lookout with a 180 degree view of North Conway and the surroundin...

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 ti...

Starting from the parking lot, the two trails initially begin together. Less than a mile in the trails split into Old Bridle Path to the left, and Falling Waters Trail to the right. Most people choose to go up and down on the same trail. To those doing the loop, most choose to hike up Falling Wat...

To hike to the Appalachian Mountain Club's Greenleaf Hut, the best route for a day hike there and back is the Old Bridle Path. This hike is certainly doable in a day if you're interested in just hiking to the Greenleaf Hut. You have a lot of options when hiking this trail. I am going to focus spe...

Falling Waters Trail takes you up to the summit of Little Haystack Mountain, and Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette if you continue to the Franconia Ridge Trail / Appalachian Trail, then over to Old Bridle Path. Also along Falling Waters Trail are stunning waterfalls. The most popular one is Clou...

To start this hike, you can park right at the trailhead in a parking lot off of 93. This is a hike up a mountain so the entire hike is pretty challenging. There is a total elevation gain of 3900 feet in about 4.5 miles. A couple miles in you break through the treeline and then from there the view...

This is a multi-day backpacking loop in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire (located in the the White Mountains). Leave the car at the Lafayette Place Campground, (about 1700' elevation), then head up 1.4mi to Lonesome Lake. If you start hiking in the evening, as the sun is setting, you ca...

The White Mountains offer some of the most prime foliage sightseeing (aka 'leaf peeping') in New England. Tourists flock to the Franconia Notch State Park area and surrounding parts of the White Mountains every October, but camping is generally less common. October can be a cold month in New Hamp...

 Park at Lafayette Place right off of I-93. It is one of the most accessible trail heads to hit a “4,000 footer” in the White Mountains and has plenty parking. Signage is visible and easy to follow as you begin at 1,800 feet and walk through a wooded campground onto the Lonesome Lake Trail. The t...

The best place to park when doing this hike in the winter is at the Lafayette Campground. The campground and parking lot are typically empty in the cold winter months, aside from occasional cross-country skiers on the Pemigewasset bike path. The Lafayette campground parking lot is directly access...

The Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire has many roadside adventures to go on, bringing in thousands of visitors every year, but my favorite place in the notch is Lonesome Lake. At 3 miles, the hike is easy enough for the whole family, but most people visiting the notch stick to the roadside a...

Consider this moderate hike a warm-up to some of the bigger boys in the area! We've hiked Cathedral Ledge from Echo Lake State Park in the past, but wanted something a little longer in distance & slighting more challenging. When I asked the guy manning the State Park booth for a map he said, ...

Our hike began at the Basin, which is a clearly marked exit directly off 93. If you are coming from the Northbound side, walk under the bridge beneath 93 to get to the beginning of the trail. We enjoyed the Basin for a while before hiking 1.0 mile to the Cascade Brook Trail where we took a right....

The Basin is just one stop on the Pemigewasset Recreational Trail that follows along I-93 through Franconia Notch. The parking lot for the Basin is easily accessible from either north or south on I-93, and it has it's own exit sign which can't be missed.Park in the lot and follow the signs toward...

The Hancock trailhead is located at the infamous hairpin turn of the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains. The trail itself crosses the road and starts at 2000 feet of elevation on the Hancock Notch trail. It remains fairly flat for the first 3 miles of the trail. After 1.8 miles you will hi...

This round trip loop is the combination of many trails within the Pemigewasset Wilderness. We chose to this hike up into a 3 day backpacking trip although we came across some particularly adventurous folks who were doing it in 2 and even 1 day. We also came across hikers less pressed for time who...