No. You do not need a permit, a reservation or a quota slot to hike any trail in the White Mountain National Forest or in Franconia Notch and Crawford Notch state parks, on any day, for any distance, including the Franconia Ridge, Mount Washington and the Pemigewasset Wilderness. You walk to the trailhead sign and start. What the mountains do ask for is a parking fee at many Forest Service trailheads, a ticket for one attraction, and a reservation if you want a roof or a campsite at the end of the day.
The confusion comes from western parks, where permits and lotteries are normal, and from the word wilderness, which in the White Mountains means federal land protected from roads and logging, with camping rules, but with no permit system. It also comes from the parking situation in Franconia Notch, where the lots fill early and the state runs a shuttle, which people mistake for a reservation system. It is not; it is a parking problem.
Below: what is free, what costs money, what needs booking, and the one voluntary card that every trail guide on this site mentions.
Trails: free and open, no permit
Every hiking trail in the White Mountain National Forest and the state parks is open to the public without a permit. There is no daily quota on the Franconia Ridge Loop, no reservation for Mount Washington, no permit for the Pemi Loop or the Presidential Traverse. The federal wilderness areas, the Pemigewasset among them, restrict group size to ten, ban bicycles and motors, and have camping rules, but they do not issue permits either. Trail closures happen for maintenance, the Lincoln Woods Trail through November 2026 being the current one, and those are closed, not permitted.
Parking: the fee at Forest Service trailheads
What many Forest Service trailheads charge for is the parking. The White Mountain National Forest designates fee sites, including every developed trailhead along the Kancamagus Highway, Zealand Road, Rumney Rocks and dozens more, where a vehicle must display a recreation pass: about five dollars for a day, paid in cash or by check in an envelope at the kiosk with no change given, or a thirty-dollar annual pass, or the America the Beautiful interagency pass. Undeveloped pull-offs and many smaller trailheads have no fee; read the sign. The annual pass pays for itself in a week and is sold at the Pemigewasset Ranger Station in Campton and by local vendors.
Franconia Notch State Park's trailhead lots, including Lafayette Place, the Basin, the Flume hiker lot and the Profile Lake lot, are free, though the beach at Echo Lake charges a day-use fee and the weekend hiker shuttle from the Cannon lot costs five dollars a round trip. The Squam Lakes Association trails to the south are free. Our answer page on parking costs lists the fee sites near Lincoln.
Tickets: the Flume, and the rides
One walk in the region is ticketed: the Flume Gorge, the two-mile loop through the 800-foot chasm in Franconia Notch, which sells timed-entry tickets for its season, May 8 to October 25 in 2026. The Lost River Gorge in Kinsman Notch, the Polar Caves in Rumney, the Cog Railway and Loon's summer gondola are attractions with admission too. Everything else in this site's hikes hub, forty-odd summits, waterfalls and ponds, is free once you have parked.
Reservations: huts, campgrounds and the shuttle
A bunk at an AMC hut must be reserved through the club, and the popular huts book out weeks ahead for summer weekends. Forest Service and state park campgrounds take reservations through the federal and state systems, and the backcountry tent sites with caretakers charge a small fee on arrival. The AMC hiker shuttle wants a reservation too. None of this is a permit to hike; it is a bed or a ride.
The hikeSafe card: voluntary, and worth it
New Hampshire can bill a hiker for a rescue caused by negligence, and the voluntary hikeSafe card, twenty-five dollars a person or thirty-five a family for the calendar year, protects the holder from that bill unless the conduct was reckless, while funding the volunteer rescue teams. It is not a permit and nobody will ask to see it on the trail. Our journal post explains it; our advice is to buy it.
Fishing and hunting: the actual licenses
The permits that do exist are for taking things. Anyone sixteen and over needs a New Hampshire fishing license to fish the rivers and ponds, sold online by Fish and Game with short-term nonresident options, and hunting requires a license and a season. Our paddling and fishing guide has the fees. Picking blueberries on the ledges in August needs nothing but a container.
From the lodge
From the lodge the practical version is short: carry a national forest pass or small bills in the car, buy Flume tickets online the night before, reserve any hut bunk weeks out, and consider the hikeSafe card once for the year. We keep the annual pass and the current fee-site list in the digital guidebook, and the Campton ranger station that sells the pass is 15 min south.
Useful links
- White Mountain National Forest: passes and alerts
Which trailheads are fee sites, the current pass prices and the closures. - Franconia Notch State Park
The free trailhead lots, the Flume's tickets and the weekend shuttle. - New Hampshire Fish and Game: hikeSafe and licenses
The voluntary card and the fishing licenses that are the only real permits. - Our answer on trailhead parking costs
The fee sites near Lincoln and how to pay. - Our hikeSafe card post
The law behind the card and our advice.
Sources & official info: fs.usda.gov · nhstateparks.org · wildlife.nh.gov · hikesafe.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
