White Mountains - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 850

3. Kancamagus Highway
Named for a Penacook chief, “the Kanc,” as locals call it, rises to an elevation of 2,900
feet, making it one of the highest roadways in the Northeast. In autumn it's also one of the
prettiest, corkscrewing as it does past birches, beeches, and maples that blaze against an
emeraldbackdropofsprucesandhemlocks.This34-milebywaypassesneardozensofwa-
terfallsbutnotasinglerestaurantorfuelstation,soyoumaywishtostopatLincolnbefore
getting on Rte. 112. The White Mountain Visitors Center, just off Exit 32 on Rte. 93, is a
good place to get acquainted with the scenery and sites that lie ahead.
From Lincoln the drive climbs 1,000 feet in just 10 miles, spiraling past jagged peaks
and glacier-carved cirques. Strewn about the rugged landscape are countless boulders,
many of which—poised on tiny toes of rock and leaning at unlikely angles—seem ready to
roll with the next gust of wind.
4. Kancamagus Pass
At an elevation of almost 2,900 feet, Kancamagus Pass is the highest point on Rte. 112,
making this stretch of road especially scenic. On the way up you'll see the trailheads of
the Pemigewasset Wilderness Area, 45,000 acres of untamed territory bordered by the Ap-
palachian Trail (one of many to be enjoyed here). Once you reach the pass, the dazzling
scenerymaytemptyoutokeepturningyourhead—butkeepyoureyesfocusedontheroad.
Before long you will encounter two hairpin curves, made all the more hazardous by their
lack of guardrails to stop vehicles from plunging down the hillside and into the valley.
Atopthepass,viewsopenuptothePresidentialRange,ajumbleof11loftypeaks,sev-
eral of them named for American presidents. Several of these summits top off at more than
a mile above sea level, and the tallest of them—at 6,288 feet—is Mt. Washington, whose
rocky crest is sometimes visible from as far as 70 miles away. Some of the best views of
thePresidentialsareavailableatthenearbyC.L.GrahamWanganGround,aformerIndian
meeting place that is now a lovely picnic spot.
Did you know…
In 1784 Dr. Jeremy Belknap, an early New Hampshire historian, named the
highest peak in the Presidential Range to honor Revolutionary War general Ge-
orge Washington. It wasn't until 1820 that a group of climbers from Lancaster,
led by Ethan Allen Crawford, reached the top of Mt. Washington and gave
names to several of its adjacent peaks—Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Mon-
roe. Eisenhower and Pierce were named more recently.