Flume Gorge Trail: Franconia Notch State Park

Franconia Notch State Park is in northern New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The park is regularly voted as and considered one of the premier state parks in the United States. One of the main reasons for that is Flume Gorge.  

The Flume Gorge Trail is considered one of the best hiking trails in New England. It’s undoubtedly one of our favorites.  My wife and I hiked the Flume Gorge Loop in late summer while road-tripping through New England. This was one of the big highlights of the itinerary, so we were very excited about the opportunity. 

We’d spend the night before camping in nearby Crawford Notch State Park and enjoyed the sunrise at Profile Lake and the Old Man of the Mountain Historic Site.  

Hiking the Flume Gorge Trail

You have to have reservations to hike Flume Gorge.  The earliest you can reserve time to hike the trail is 9 am, and we were lucky enough to get reservations for the first group allowed to hike in. 

We pulled into the large parking lot about an hour early. When we arrived, there was only one other car there.  We had not eaten yet, so we made breakfast and some coffee to fuel up for our adventure. 

The Flume Gorge Trail is a 2.2-mile loop with a roughly 500-foot elevation gain. It’s clearly popular, given that reservations are required to hike it. About a dozen others hit the trail with us at 9 a.m.  

We headed down the trail at a very leisurely pace. The sky was blue, with only a few scattered clouds high up. The ground was still pretty wet from a storm that had rolled through the night before. We could smell the decaying leaves as we started down the trail. 

After a short distance, we came to a giant glacial erratic in the middle of the trail, a large boulder about the size of an average one-bedroom apartment. With a slight right turn, we came to a covered bridge over the Pemigewasset River, built in 1886. The Boulder Cabin, built in 1930, followed a short distance later. 

From here, the trail parallels Flume Brook for a while. On the left, we came to Table Rock, a large, smooth rock outcropping that would make one heck of a natural waterslide. 

The Flume continues upstream as the rock walls narrow and cool, moist air fills the canyon. Here, the trail becomes a boardwalk built in the gorge and becomes exceptionally beautiful. From here, the gorge extends 800 feet and is as narrow as 12 feet wide in places. The elevated wooden boardwalk hugs the granite walls, which are as high as 90 feet in some areas.  The gorge walls were covered with brilliant neon green moss and vibrant ferns as we walked along the boardwalk. 

At the top of the gorge, we came to Avalanche Falls. The boardwalk takes you right next to the 45 falls, tumbling down a granite cliff. After climbing up the gorge, it was incredibly refreshing to feel the cool mist from the walls, not to mention the view was stunning. It was very clear why everyone who hikes this trail loves it. 

After the falls, we came to Bear’s Cave before pivoting to the left and descending the Ridge Path. Next, we took a short spur trail to get a view of Liberty Gorge, which was another beautiful waterfall.

Sentinel Pine Covered Bridge & The Pool

Beyond that, we quickly came to the Sentinel Pine Covered Bridge over the Pemigewasset River. The bridge is named after and built from the Sentinel Pine, which, a sign explained before it fell in a storm in 1938, was one of the largest White Pines in New England.  From the bridge, we got a beautiful view of “The Pool” which was the prettiest deep river basin of brownish-orange color and surrounded by 80-foot granite cliffs. It’s said to be 40 feet deep in place. 

Directly after crossing the Sentinel Pine Covered Bridge, we took a narrow one-way path through the “Wolf’s Den,” which involved crawling through the rocks in places. In some places, it’s only a few feet wide and very low! 

Soon, we completed the loop and crossed the first covered bridge again on our way back towards the visitor center. This was an excellent hike! It took us a little less than two hours, but we were very slow and took way too many pictures. 

When we got back to the parking lot, it was nearly full.  Proving reservations are a must!