Happenin’
Places › New Hampshire › Kancamagus Highway
Kancamagus Highway

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided / Public domain · source

⛰️ Mountains

Kancamagus Highway

Lincoln, NH · White Mountains, New Hampshire

About

NH 112 runs about 34 miles between Lincoln and Conway with no gas, no lodging, and no billboards, which is the point. It climbs to a height of land at 2,855 feet on Kancamagus Pass, then drops east along the Swift River. The stops are roadside: Sabbaday Falls, a short walk on graded gravel to a cascade stepped through a flume; Rocky Gorge, where the Swift squeezes through granite under a footbridge; and Lower Falls, the swimming ledges people use in July. Overlooks near the pass open onto the Pemigewasset Wilderness with nothing built in sight. At the west end, Lincoln Woods sends a suspension bridge over the Pemi onto a flat old railroad grade. Color peaks the first two weeks of October and the lots fill by mid morning, so start before 9. The road is plowed all winter; trailhead parking needs a Forest Service pass, and the Sabbaday path is a warm season walk.

Highlights

34 mi, Lincoln to ConwayKancamagus Pass, 2,855 ftNo gas, food or lodgingPeak foliage early OctTrailhead parking pass neededPlowed year round

Getting there

Related places

Mount Washington Mountains

Mount Washington

Gorham, NH · White Mountains, New Hampshire

Mount Washington tops out at 6,288 feet, the highest point in the Northeast, and the summit observatory clocked a 231 mph gust in April 1934, still the fastest wind ever recorded at a staffed surface station. There are three ways up. The Auto Road climbs 7.6 miles of switchbacks from Route 16 with no guardrails. The Cog Railway grinds up the west side from Marshfield Base Station on grades near 37 percent. Or hike the Tuckerman Ravine Trail from Pinkham Notch, about 4.2 miles and 4,000 feet of gain, a full day even in July. Above treeline the path is a boulder field marked by cairns, and rime ice shows up in September. Season matters more than weather luck here: the Auto Road runs late April to early November, the summit building opens only late May to mid October, and in winter the Cog turns back at Waumbek Station. Check the summit forecast, not the valley one.

Crawford Notch State Park Mountains

Crawford Notch State Park

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

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.

Yosemite National Park Mountains

Yosemite National Park

Mariposa, CA, CA · Sierra Nevada

Yosemite is a Sierra Nevada showpiece where glacier-carved granite walls, thundering waterfalls, and ancient giant sequoias crowd into one valley floor. From the visitor hub in Yosemite Valley you can crane your neck at El Capitan and Half Dome, chase spring waterfall spray, or drive up to a viewpoint that frames the whole high country. It is one of the most scenic and worth-the-trip national parks in the country, though summer crowds and seasonal road closures reward visitors who plan ahead.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Kancamagus Highway.

Best of New Hampshire7 places

Best of New Hampshire

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.