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Crawford Notch State Park

Photo: Bob Linsdell / CC BY 3.0 · source

⛰️ Mountains

Crawford Notch State Park

Hart's Location, NH · White Mountains, New Hampshire

About

US 302 runs the floor of a U-shaped pass the Saco spent millennia carving, Webster Cliff on one wall, Mount Willard closing the view north. Flume Cascade and Silver Cascade drop right beside the road near the top of the notch, close enough to hear through an open window. The walking is the better part. Arethusa Falls, generally counted the tallest in New Hampshire, is about 3 miles round trip and roughly 850 feet of gain at a grade most kids handle. Mount Willard climbs 1.6 miles from the Crawford Depot area to a ledge framing the entire notch, about 900 feet up for the best view per step in the Whites. No tickets and no timed entry, and it stays calmer than Franconia. Route 302 is a state highway plowed all winter, so the drive holds year round, but the Willey House site and Dry River Campground run late May into late October, and the Arethusa lot fills early on foliage weekends.

Highlights

Free, no tickets or gateArethusa Falls, 3 mi round tripMount Willard, 1.6 mi each wayRoadside cascades on US 302US 302 plowed year roundFoliage peaks early Oct

Getting there

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Granite, notches, and one very serious mountain. Seven places that cover what New Hampshire actually is: the White Mountains and their passes, a lake with more than 250 islands, a bare summit standing alone in the southwest, and eighteen miles of coast anchored by a working 1600s port.