White Mountain Three Notches

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Lincoln

   Two Lincolns in New England matter to riders, and they are not the same town. The famous one is in New Hampshire, at the western end of the Kancamagus. It sits in the valley of the New Haven River, with Mount Abraham, one of the state's four-thousand-footers, rising over it to the east.

   Read the complete Lincoln write-up.

2. 2. Franconia Notch

   Franconia Notch is a gap in the White Mountains where a glacier once scoured a deep trough, leaving granite walls rising steeply on either side. The notch is about eight miles long, with Cannon Mountain on the west and the Kinsman and Franconia ranges on the east, and the road threads through the bottom at around 1,900 feet. The ridge above is bare rock and spruce, and the sound of wind in the trees carries down to the highway. For years the main attraction was the Old Man of the Mountain, a natural profile on a cliff face that appeared on the state's licence plates and quarter, until it collapsed in May 2003. A memorial of steel rods and plaques on the lake shore now shows where it once hung.

   Read the complete Franconia Notch write-up.

3. 3. Crawford Notch

   Crawford Notch is a deep gash in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a glacier-carved, U-shaped valley that squeezes between steep granite walls, with the road, a railway line and the headwaters of the Saco River all running through the gap at about 580 metres. The cliffs on either side rise hundreds of metres, streaked with waterfalls, and the whole setting has a drama unusual for the eastern United States. US 302 runs through the notch, a well-surfaced road with gentle gradients and moderate curves, and it is among the most scenic in New England.

   Read the complete Crawford Notch write-up.

4. 4. North Conway

   North Conway is the busy heart of the Mount Washington Valley, a small town of about two thousand people that fills at weekends with skiers, hikers, leaf-peepers and shoppers. The reason is the setting: the valley is a broad, flat basin ringed by the high, rocky peaks of the White Mountains, with the Saco River winding slowly through meadows, and the great granite cliffs of Cathedral Ledge and White Horse Ledge rising straight above the town. Mount Washington, the highest summit in the northeastern United States at 1,917 metres, lies to the northwest, and is famous for having some of the worst weather on earth.

   Read the complete North Conway write-up.

5. 5. Back to Lincoln

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Lincoln write-up.