Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Franconia Notch State Park

Franconia Notch State Park is an eight mile linear park that travels through the valley between two mountain ranges in the White Mountains. The terrain is rugged with hiking trails, a paved biking/walking path, campground, and lake with a beach.  The main attractions are Flume Gorge Trail, a 2 mile loop trail, and the aerial tramway which climbs 2,180' to the 4,080 foot summit of Cannon Mountain. Both of these have a fee that is higher than most other state parks that charge for special attractions.
As expected, not much is accessible. We drove through the park and stopped at the Basin Cascade Trailhead lot to walk along the bike path. We found the path at this location to be too hilly so we moved on to the tramway parking lot where we walked/rolled to the north end of Echo Lake along a fairly level section of path. We didn't go on the tram ride because I'm a chicken about heights but we did go to the free New England Ski Museum. The museum is small and interesting to a point but I think you have to be a big fan of skiing to really enjoy all of the displays.
Most of the bike path is too hilly to be accessible. The tramway is accessible but the trails on the summit are not. The ski museum is accessible. The hiking trails including the Flume Gorge Trail are not accessible due to the terrain.

The tramway parking lot is large and free. Any RV will fit. Bike Trail  Ski Museum  44.1714, -71.68871

2 comments:

  1. That's funny. I don't mind heights at all, but I'm terrified of free ski museums.

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    1. If you stay too long they strap skis on you and push you down the hill. It's a rough ride when there's no snow!

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