New Hampshire

New Hampshire's White Mountains offer rugged hiking (including the Northeast's highest peak), rock and ice climbing, paddling, skiing, and leaf-peeping. The White Mountain National Forest, Mount Washington, Franconia Notch and the Flume Gorge, the Presidential Range, and the Lakes Region around Winnipesaukee anchor it, served by the Appalachian Mountain Club hut system.

Fall foliage (late September–early October) is world-famous; summer is prime for hiking and the lakes. Winter brings serious mountaineering, ice climbing, and skiing; spring is mud season in the mountains.

Moose, black bears, white-tailed deer, and the occasional bobcat inhabit the forests, while alpine zones above treeline host rare arctic plants and the lakes support loons.

Northern hardwood and boreal spruce-fir forest blanket the mountains, capped by rare alpine tundra on the highest peaks — a fragile relic ecosystem holding plants found otherwise only far to the north.

The granite of the 'Granite State' forms the White Mountains, sculpted by glaciers into notches, cirques, and the Presidential Range, with 6,288-ft Mount Washington the highest in the Northeast.

The Abenaki and other Algonquian peoples lived here. One of the original 13 colonies and the first to declare independence, New Hampshire was the 9th state, in 1788, and the AMC built its first high hut in 1888.

A storied White Mountains hiking tradition (the AMC hut system dates to 1888), serious winter mountaineering culture, and fall-foliage tourism define the outdoors.

Protecting the fragile alpine tundra, conserving the White Mountain National Forest, and maintaining the heavily used trail system are central efforts.

Manchester (MHT) and Boston serve the state; the White Mountains are reached via I-93 through Franconia Notch. A vehicle is essential for the mountains and lakes.

Mount Washington and the Presidentials hold the Northeast's most dangerous weather — hurricane-force winds, whiteouts, and hypothermia year-round; turn back early and carry the essentials. Black flies plague late spring.

Trailheads in the national forest require a recreation pass, and NH Fish and Game administers licenses; state parks charge fees.

Carry the ten essentials above treeline, and stay on rock to protect alpine plants.

Hike the Whites in summer or early fall (start early, prepare for sudden weather above treeline), drive Franconia Notch and the Kancamagus Highway for foliage, and respect Mount Washington's deadly conditions.

New Hampshire borders Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts, linking the White Mountains, the Green Mountains, and a short Atlantic coastline.