About Franconia Notch State Park

Franconia Notch State Park is a mountain pass in Franconia and Lincoln, New Hampshire, owned by the state since 1927 and run by the New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation (NH State Parks). It sits in the heart of the White Mountain National Forest, where I-93 runs 8 miles as a parkway between the Kinsman and Franconia mountain ranges, from the Flume Gorge in the south to Echo Lake in the north. The state bought the 6,000-acre Notch property in 1927, after a public campaign in which people "bought" its trees for a dollar each.

How the Notch Formed

NH State Parks says the Notch was formed 200 million years ago. The ice age left its mark everywhere you walk: the state describes the Flume's glacial boulders, a Basin eroded as the ice sheet melted, Echo Lake as a glacially formed lake, and Lonesome Lake as an alpine lake left behind by receding glaciers.

The Grand Hotel Years

In the 1800s the Notch was a resort. The Forest Society tells the story: the Profile House hotel opened at the north end in 1853 and grew into a self-contained village with its own farm, power plant, golf course and railroad from Bethlehem. Its owners held thousands of acres of the Notch, including the Old Man, the Basin, the Pool and the Flume. On August 2, 1923, a fire destroyed the whole complex in under four hours. Every guest escaped. The parking lot at the Cannon tram base covers the spot where it stood.

Saving the Notch, One Dollar at a Time

After the fire, the hotel's owners offered the land for sale to the highest bidder. The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests set out to buy it before a June 1928 deadline, at a price of $400,000. The state legislature gave half. Forest Society treasurer James J. Storrow pledged $100,000. The New Hampshire Federation of Women's Clubs raised $65,000, and donors across the country "bought" trees for a dollar apiece; schoolchildren alone gave more than $1,000 in coins. About 15,000 people and groups gave the last $200,000 in time.

On September 15, 1928, the land was dedicated as the Franconia Notch Forest Reservation and Memorial Park, a memorial to the New Hampshire men and women who served the nation in wartime. NH State Parks' own history records the state's purchase of the 6,000-acre property in 1927 with the Forest Society's help. The Forest Society ran the Flume for the next 20 years, until the state took it over in 1948.

The Tram and the Ski Area

In 1938 Cannon Mountain opened the first passenger aerial tramway in North America, built to carry skiers to the summit. A larger tram replaced it in 1980 and ran until October 26, 2025. A third-generation tram is now being planned; see the tram page. Cannon Mountain Ski Area is still state-run and has the highest ski summit in New Hampshire, 4,080 feet.

The Parkway

When I-93 came north, it did not come through the Notch as a full interstate. The Forest Society says the highway's construction was a decades-long legal fight that ended in a compromise pushed by conservation groups, including the Forest Society and the Appalachian Mountain Club: a two-lane parkway through the floor of the Notch, with the paved recreation trail running beside it. The trail was later named New Hampshire's Millennium Trail, and the park received the Centennial Medallion Award, according to NH State Parks.

The Old Man of the Mountain

For two centuries the park's best-known sight was a stone face on Cannon Cliff, the Old Man of the Mountain, written about by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Daniel Webster and later put on the state quarter. It collapsed overnight on May 2 to 3, 2003. The Profiler Plaza on Profile Lake, dedicated in 2011, lets you see it again; see the Old Man of the Mountain.

Old Forest and Wildlife

There are patches of uncut old forest in and around the Notch. A New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau guide published through NH State Parks describes patches of old forest along the bike path, with some trees more than 250 years old, shaped by hurricanes, ice and wind. The park page also suggests watching Cannon Cliffs for rock climbers, hawks and peregrine falcons, and fly-fishing for trout in Profile Lake.

The Park Today

Cannon Mountain calls Franconia Notch one of New Hampshire's most celebrated and visited parks. Most of it is free, and the main sights line up along one road: the Flume Gorge, the Basin, Lafayette Place, Boise Rock, Profile Lake, the Cannon tram base and Echo Lake. For a day plan, see plan your visit.