If you came here hoping to ride the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway, the headline first: it is closed. The state retired the second-generation tram on October 26, 2025, after forty-five years of service, and the replacement — billed as North America's first third-generation aerial tramway — is a multi-year project. The funding is largely in place, and the new tram is still a few years from opening, so for now the summit belongs to hikers. Nobody should plan a 2026 trip around riding it.
That said, the tram's story is one of the great ones in American skiing, the base area is still very much open, and there are real ways to stand on top of Cannon and get the view the tram used to sell. This page keeps the status straight and gives you the alternatives.
The status today
The tram did not operate for the 2025-26 winter and will not operate in 2026. New Hampshire's Department of Natural and Cultural Resources retired it deliberately — the 1980 system had reached the end of its practical life — with a next-generation replacement planned rather than an overhaul. State funding of about $27.2 million was secured with the total project estimated between $25 and $33 million, and Cannon has been prequalifying two lift builders, Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma, to bid.
The good news buried in the engineering: the existing foundations, towers and terminals were assessed as reusable, which shortens the build. The realistic language from the state in mid-2026 is 'a few years' — check cannonmt.com or nhstateparks.org for the current word before you promise anyone a ride.
What the tram was
The original Cannon tramway opened in 1938 — the first passenger aerial tramway in North America — and helped make Cannon one of the country's founding ski areas. Its 1980 successor, the one just retired, carried eighty passengers a car up roughly 2,000 vertical feet to the 4,080-foot summit in about 8 min, and in summer it was the notch's signature sightseeing ride: the observation deck, the summit walking paths, and the full sweep of the Franconia Range from above.
That heritage is why the state chose a next-generation tram over a gondola or a chairlift — the tramway is part of Cannon's identity, and Franconia Notch State Park wanted to keep it that way.
How to get the summit view now
On foot: Cannon is a real hike, and our Cannon Mountain trail guide covers the routes — the Kinsman Ridge Trail straight up from the tram base is short and very steep, and the longer approach via Lonesome Lake and the Hi-Cannon Trail is the gentler day. The summit still has its observation deck and paths, and the payoff is the same panorama the tram sold, earned the hard way.
By lift, elsewhere: Loon Mountain's gondola, 6 min from the lodge, runs a summer and foliage schedule to its own summit with a boardwalk, tower and glacial caves — it is the notch-area ride-to-the-top while Cannon's is down. In winter, Cannon's ski lifts still turn on the mountain's other side; the tram closure does not close the ski area.
The base area is still worth the stop
The tram base sits at the north end of the notch beside Echo Lake Beach and the Old Man of the Mountain Profile Plaza and museum — the New England Ski Museum is right there too — so the Cannon area remains one of the best half-day stops in the White Mountains even with the cars parked. Our Echo Lake and Old Man guides cover both.
In ski season, Cannon runs as a state-owned, no-frills mountain with real terrain and a loyal local following. Our skiing guide compares it with Loon fairly.
Where to stay for it
The Cannon base area is about 16 min north of the lodge in the notch. Until the new tram opens, our standard advice for the ride-to-the-top experience is Loon's gondola 6 min the other way — and for the true Cannon summit, the hike, which our trail guide explains without sugarcoating the grade.
Sources & official info: nhstateparks.org · cannonmt.com · dncr.nh.gov · unionleader.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
