About five dollars a day where it costs anything, and nothing where it does not. The White Mountain National Forest charges a parking fee at its developed trailheads, including every one along the Kancamagus Highway, and sells a thirty-dollar annual pass that covers them all for a year. New Hampshire's state park trailheads in Franconia Notch are free. Town-owned and association-owned trailheads, like the Squam Lakes trails, are free. That is the whole system, and the only trick to it is the kiosk, which takes cash or a check and gives no change.
The fee is for the vehicle, not the person, and it is a parking fee rather than an entry fee: the trails themselves are free and permit-free everywhere in the range. Below, the fee sites near Lincoln, the free ones, how to pay, and where to buy the pass that ends the question.
The Forest Service fee: $5 a day or $30 a year
At a White Mountain National Forest fee site a parked vehicle must display a recreation pass. The daily pass is about five dollars, bought on the spot at the trailhead kiosk: you fill in the envelope, put in cash or a check, tear off the stub and put it on the dash. There is no card reader and no change, so carry small bills. The annual pass is thirty dollars, valid for a year from the month of purchase, and the eighty-dollar America the Beautiful interagency pass, along with the senior and access versions, is accepted too. Two or more trail days in a week make the annual pass the better buy.
The annual pass is sold at the Forest Service's Pemigewasset Ranger Station at 71 White Mountain Drive in Campton, 15 min south of Lincoln and open Tuesday to Friday, and by local vendors; the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center does not sell it. Buy it before your first trail day and the kiosks stop mattering.
Which trailheads near Lincoln charge
Every developed trailhead and recreation site along the Kancamagus Highway: Lincoln Woods, Greeley Ponds, the Hancock Notch trailhead at the hairpin, Sabbaday Falls, Rocky Gorge, Lower Falls, the Boulder Loop and Champney Falls among them. The Zealand trailhead at the end of Zealand Road. Rumney Rocks, where climbers pay the same five dollars. Many of the trailheads off Route 302 in Crawford Notch mix state and federal land and the signs change; read the kiosk and carry the pass to be covered. Our hike guides state the fee situation for each trail.
Which are free
Franconia Notch State Park's trailhead lots: Lafayette Place on both sides of the parkway, the Basin, the Flume hiker lot, the Profile Lake lot at the Old Man plaza and the Cannon tramway lot. The Echo Lake beach charges a day-use fee for the beach itself, and the weekend hiker shuttle from the Cannon lot to Lafayette Place is five dollars a person round trip. The Waterville Valley ski area lot for Mount Tecumseh is free, a rare no-fee four-thousand-footer. The Squam Lakes Association trails to West Rattlesnake and the Squam Range are free. Small undeveloped pull-offs like the Nancy Pond and Coppermine trailheads have no kiosk; carry the pass anyway.
What the fee pays for, and what happens without a pass
The recreation fee stays in the White Mountain National Forest and pays for the trailhead toilets, the kiosks, the trail crews and the parking lots themselves. A vehicle without a pass at a fee site gets a notice on the windshield and a bill by mail; it is not a large fine, but it is a poor start to a hike. The free state park lots are paid for by the Flume's ticket sales and the state, which is why they are free and why the Flume is not.
The other fee: the hikeSafe card
Not a parking fee and not required, but often mentioned in the same breath: New Hampshire's voluntary hikeSafe card, twenty-five dollars a person or thirty-five a family for the calendar year, funds search and rescue and protects the holder from being billed for a rescue unless reckless. It is sold online by Fish and Game, not at the kiosks. Our journal post explains it.
From the lodge
We tell guests to buy the annual pass on the way in if they will hike more than twice, and otherwise to keep a few five-dollar bills in the glovebox. The Campton ranger station is 15 min south on I-93, the Kancamagus fee sites start a short drive east, and the free notch lots are 12 min north. The digital guidebook lists which of our trail guides start at fee sites.
Useful links
- White Mountain National Forest: recreation passes
The current pass prices and the list of fee sites. - Pemigewasset Ranger Station, Campton
Where the annual pass is sold, 15 min south of the lodge. - Franconia Notch State Park
The free lots, the Echo Lake fee and the weekend shuttle. - Our answer on hiking permits
No permit is needed anywhere; here is what is. - Our hiker services guide
Where to buy the pass, the map and everything else in town.
Sources & official info: fs.usda.gov · fs.usda.gov · nhstateparks.org · cannonmt.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
