Find a gorge, a tramway, and a ghost in New Hampshire’s wildest eight miles of highway

The White Mountains’ most dramatic eight miles

Franconia Notch State Park sits in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and it’s not the kind of place you drive through once and forget.

A glacial gorge, a missing boulder, a face carved in stone that fell off a cliff in the middle of the night, a tramway that carried nine million people up a 4,080-foot mountain.

The park runs eight miles along I-93, and nearly every one of them has something worth stopping for. The hardest part is deciding where to start.

Where the highway narrows and the mountains close in

The park covers about 6,800 acres tucked between the Kinsman Range to the west and the Franconia Range to the east.

As I-93 enters the park, it sheds its extra lanes and becomes a two-lane parkway, which tells you something about how seriously New Hampshire takes this place.

The notch straddles the towns of Franconia to the north and Lincoln to the south, and all of it sits within the larger White Mountain National Forest.

This is what the Northeast looks like when it decides to get serious.

How a hotel fire and dollar-a-tree campaign saved it all

In the 1800s, Franconia Notch was a playground for the wealthy.

The Profile House, a grand resort hotel with its own private railroad, could host hundreds of guests at a time. Then in August 1923, the hotel burned to the ground, and logging companies moved in to buy the land.

A coalition of conservation groups pushed back, raising funds by selling trees for a dollar each.

More than 15,000 people contributed, the land was saved, and in September 1928 the park was formally dedicated as a memorial to New Hampshire’s veterans.

Walk through a gorge that took 200 million years to carve

Flume Gorge cuts 800 feet through the base of Mount Liberty, with granite walls climbing 70 to 90 feet on either side. The rock itself formed about 200 million years ago as molten material cooling deep underground.

Veins of softer basalt running through the granite eroded away over millions of years, leaving behind this narrow passage.

A two-mile loop trail takes you through the gorge on wooden boardwalks, past waterfalls, covered bridges, and walls draped in moss.

A 93-year-old woman named Jess Guernsey first stumbled across it in 1808 while looking for a fishing spot.

The boulder that hung in mid-air and then vanished forever

When the gorge was first explored, an egg-shaped boulder roughly 10 feet high and 12 feet long hung suspended between the walls with no visible support. For 75 years, people walked under it.

Then in June 1883, a violent rainstorm triggered a landslide that swept it away. Nobody ever found it.

That same storm deepened the gorge and sent a new waterfall over its head wall.

You can still see Avalanche Falls there today, a reminder that the gorge is still changing, just on a timescale most of us can’t track.

The stone face that watched over New Hampshire for two centuries

On the upper cliffs of Cannon Mountain, five layered granite ledges formed the unmistakable profile of a human face. The formation stood 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide, perched 1,200 feet above Profile Lake.

First noted in writing around 1805, the Old Man of the Mountain became New Hampshire’s official state emblem in 1945, and later appeared on the state quarter, license plates, and highway signs.

Sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. on May 3, 2003, after decades of repairs using steel rods, turnbuckles, and cement, it collapsed.

How the state kept the Old Man’s memory alive

Engineers and planners debated what to do. A task force rejected proposals to rebuild a replica on the cliff face.

Instead, a memorial plaza along Profile Lake now holds a series of steel profile sculptures called Profile Makers. Stand at the right spot and line them up, and you’ll see exactly what the Old Man looked like from below.

The memorial opened in 2020. Near the tramway base, a museum holds historic photos and artifacts from the long effort to preserve the formation.

His face still appears on every New Hampshire license plate and highway sign.

The mountain tramway that carried nine million people up 4,080 feet

Cannon Mountain is the highest ski area summit in New Hampshire, with a 2,180-foot vertical drop.

In 1938, it became home to North America’s first aerial passenger tramway, built after skier Alexander Bright saw similar systems in Europe and pushed the idea home. The original cars carried 27 passengers.

A second generation with 80-passenger cars replaced them in 1980, nicknamed “Ketchup” and “Mustard” for their red and yellow colors.

That system retired on Oct. 26, 2025, after 45 years and more than nine million passengers.

A third-generation tramway is now planned, with $27.2 million in state funding secured, but expect it to stay closed for at least two years.

Echo Lake sits at 1,931 feet with mountains on every side

At the foot of Cannon Mountain, Echo Lake gives you a place to slow down.

The lake sits at 1,931 feet with the ridgelines of both Cannon Mountain and Mount Lafayette reflected in the water on calm mornings.

In summer, you can swim at the beach, or rent a canoe, kayak, or pedal boat and get out on the water. If you’d rather fish, you can do that too.

The lake drains north through the Connecticut River watershed, its water eventually reaching the Connecticut River miles away.

A glacial pothole the size of a living room carved by meltwater

The Basin sits along the Pemigewasset River, a polished granite bowl roughly 20 to 30 feet across and 15 feet deep.

Meltwater from a retreating glacier started carving it about 15,000 years ago, and sand and stones have been smoothing its walls ever since.

A waterfall drops into the bowl from above, and a ridge of rock downstream goes by the name “Old Man’s Foot.” Two parking areas on either side of I-93 put you a short paved walk away.

It’s one of the few places in the park where the geology comes this close to the road.

The Franconia Ridge Loop climbs three summits and 3,800 feet

If you’ve got strong legs and a full day, the Franconia Ridge Loop covers roughly nine miles with 3,800 feet of elevation gain, hitting Mount Lafayette at 5,260 feet, Mount Lincoln at 5,089 feet, and Little Haystack on the way back down.

A section follows the Appalachian Trail along an exposed ridge for about 2.5 miles above treeline. The Franconia Range holds the third-largest area of alpine tundra east of the Rockies.

On busy summer weekends, up to 700 hikers a day tackle this route. Weather above treeline can turn fast and hard, so this one is not a beginner trail.

Shorter trails and a ski museum worth the detour

Not every trail in the park demands a full day. Artist’s Bluff covers about 1.5 miles and ends at open ledges above Echo Lake with Cannon Mountain filling the skyline behind it.

Lonesome Lake Trail climbs to a mountain lake at 2,760 feet, where the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Lonesome Lake Hut has sat on the shore since 1929, offering meals and bunk lodging in season.

A paved recreation path connects most of the park’s major stops for bikers and walkers.

At the base of Cannon Mountain, the New England Ski Museum has been open since 1982, charges no admission, and displays six Olympic medals won by Franconia native Bode Miller.

Franconia Notch holds something worth seeing in every season

Summer fills the park with swimmers, hikers, boaters, and bikers.

Fall turns the notch into one of the most vivid foliage corridors in New England, with mountain walls on both sides framing the color.

Winter brings skiers to Cannon Mountain’s slopes, plus cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and primitive camping at Lafayette Place Campground, which has 97 wooded tent sites.

The park stays open year-round, though Flume Gorge and the Echo Lake beach typically run from May through October. Whatever time of year you go, the mountains don’t disappoint.

Plan your visit to Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire

You can reach Franconia Notch State Park via Interstate 93 between the towns of Lincoln and Franconia in northern New Hampshire.

Before you go, note that the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway closed in October 2025 and won’t reopen for at least two years while a new system is built. The ski area itself still runs on chairlifts in winter.

Admission varies by attraction, so check the official website for current fees and seasonal hours. The nearby town of Lincoln sits at the eastern gateway to the Kancamagus Highway if you want to extend the trip.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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