The Appalachian Mountain Club has been running mountain huts in the White Mountains since 1888, when it built a stone shelter at Madison Spring on the shoulder of the northern Presidentials. Today there are eight of them, spaced a day's walk apart along the Appalachian Trail from Franconia Notch to the Carter Range, each a wooden lodge with bunkrooms, a kitchen, a crew of young people who carry the food up on their backs, and a dining room where strangers eat dinner together at six sharp. Nothing else in the eastern United States is quite like them.
From Lincoln, four huts are within an easy day hike and the rest are within a long one. Lonesome Lake Hut sits above Franconia Notch, 12 min from the lodge and a mile and a half up the trail. Greenleaf Hut hangs on the shoulder of Mount Lafayette. Galehead is the remote one in the Twin Range, and Zealand Falls is the flat walk to a waterfall. Beyond them, Mizpah Spring, Lakes of the Clouds and Madison Spring stand on the Presidentials, and Carter Notch hides in a cleft east of Pinkham. Day visitors are welcome at all of them, to fill a bottle, buy soup and a slice of the crew's bread, and sit on the porch.
This guide gives the 2026 season for every hut, the trail and the climb to each, what a full-service night and a self-service night mean, how reservations and the hiker shuttle work, the best hut day hikes from the lodge, and the classic overnights. The lodge is the natural place to sleep the night before and the night after; the huts are where you sleep in between.
How a hut works: full service, self service, and day visitors
In the full-service season, which for most huts in 2026 runs from June 4 to mid-October, each hut is staffed by a crew who cook a family-style dinner served at six sharp, with bread, soup, salad, a main course and dessert, and a breakfast at seven of eggs, pancakes, oatmeal and meat. Overnight guests get a bunk with a mattress, three wool blankets and a pillow, and bring their own sheet sack or sleeping bag liner, a headlamp and their own lunch. The crew also gives an evening talk on the mountain, the weather and the natural history, and carries the trash out on their backs the way the food came in.
In the self-service season, which three huts offer through the fall, winter and spring, the crew is gone or reduced to a caretaker, the kitchen is open to guests who bring and cook their own food, and the price drops. Lonesome Lake, Zealand Falls and Carter Notch are the year-round huts on that basis; Greenleaf, Galehead, Mizpah, Lakes and Madison close for the winter. Day visitors are welcome at every hut during the day, roughly ten to five, to refill water, use the composting toilets, buy snacks and hot drinks and usually the day's soup and baked goods, and to wait out a squall. Dogs cannot stay overnight in any hut.
Reservations are through the AMC at 603-466-2727 or online, and the popular huts on summer weekends book out weeks ahead; weeknights and September are easier. Members get a discount. A full-service night is not cheap, and it is not meant to be a hotel; the bunkrooms are shared, the lights go out at nine-thirty, and that is the charm.
Lonesome Lake Hut: the easiest, 12 min from the lodge
Lonesome Lake Hut stands at 2,730 feet on the shore of a small lake tucked into the Kinsman Range, directly above Lafayette Place in Franconia Notch. It is 1.6 miles and about 1,000 feet of climbing by the Lonesome Lake Trail from the Lafayette Place trailhead, the shortest walk to any hut, and the reward is a lake with the whole Franconia Ridge reflected in it. It sleeps 48 in two bunkhouses, runs full service from June 4 to October 17, 2026, and self service from October 21 through the winter and spring.
It is the hut we send first-timers to, the hut for a family or a couple who want one night in the mountains without a hard climb, and the finest lunch stop in the notch on a day hike. Our Lonesome Lake Trail guide covers the walk; the hut is also the way station on the long day over the Kinsmans.
Greenleaf Hut: on the shoulder of Lafayette
Greenleaf Hut sits at 4,220 feet at treeline on the western shoulder of Mount Lafayette, above Eagle Lake, with the summit cone rising a mile and 1,000 feet beyond it. From Lafayette Place the Old Bridle Path climbs 2.9 miles and about 2,500 feet to reach it, two and a half to five hours; from the tramway lot the Greenleaf Trail is the quieter alternative. It sleeps 48 and runs full service from June 4 to October 17, 2026, then closes for the winter.
Greenleaf is the hut of the Franconia Ridge Loop, the place where hikers coming off the ridge stop for lemonade before the long descent, and a night here puts you on Lafayette's summit for sunrise with nobody else. It is also the hut where the weather matters most: it sits at the edge of the alpine zone, and the ridge above it is the most exposed ground in this part of the mountains.
Galehead Hut: the remote one
Galehead Hut stands at 3,780 feet in the col between Galehead Mountain and South Twin, deep in the Twin Range with the Pemigewasset Wilderness falling away below its porch. It is the farthest of the huts from any road: 4.6 miles and about 2,250 feet from the Gale River trailhead off Route 3 in Bethlehem, a solid half day in. It sleeps 38 in four bunkrooms and runs full service from June 4 to October 17, 2026.
The porch view down into the wilderness is the best of any hut, and Galehead is the natural first night of a hut traverse or a Bonds trip. In 2026, with the Lincoln Woods Trail closed, it is also the way in to the Bonds and Guyot for many hikers, which makes its weekends busier than usual; book early.
Zealand Falls Hut: the flat walk to a waterfall
Zealand Falls Hut, built in 1932, stands at 2,640 feet beside a waterfall at the head of Zealand Notch, and the Zealand Trail to it is the gentlest hut approach in the range: 2.8 miles and about 600 feet along an old logging railroad grade from the end of Zealand Road. It sleeps 36, runs full service from June 4 to October 17, 2026, and self service from October 21 through the winter, when Zealand Road is gated and the approach becomes a six-mile ski or snowshoe from Route 302.
The view from the hut porch down the notch to the scarred face of Whitewall Mountain is one of the best in the Whites for the effort, Zeacliff is a steep mile above, and the whole valley is a lesson in how a burned forest recovers. Our Zealand Falls guide covers the walk in detail, including the winter approach.
The Presidential huts: Mizpah, Lakes of the Clouds and Madison
Mizpah Spring Hut sits at 3,777 feet in the woods below Mount Pierce, 2.7 miles and about 2,000 feet up the Crawford Path and the Mizpah Cutoff from the Crawford Path trailhead near the top of Crawford Notch. It sleeps 60, runs full service from June 4 to October 17, 2026, and is the gentlest of the Presidential huts, a good first night for anyone bound for the southern peaks.
Lakes of the Clouds Hut is the famous one: 5,012 feet, on the shoulder of Mount Washington beside two tiny alpine lakes, the largest hut with room for 90, reached by the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail from the Cog Railway's base road in about 3 miles and 2,600 feet of steep climbing. Its 2026 full-service season is short, June 4 to September 19, because of the weather at that height; a refuge room in the cellar is left open in winter for emergencies only. Madison Spring Hut, at 4,600 feet in the col between Madison and Adams, is the descendant of the original 1888 hut, sleeps 52, and is reached by the Valley Way from Appalachia on Route 2, 3.8 miles and a punishing 3,550 feet; it runs June 4 to September 26, 2026. Both stand in the harshest weather in the East and both are an hour or more from Lincoln to the trailhead.
Carter Notch Hut: the old stone hut east of Pinkham
Carter Notch Hut, dating from 1914 and the oldest of the huts still in use, sits at about 3,300 feet in the deep cleft between Carter Dome and Wildcat Mountain beside two small ponds, 3.8 miles up the Nineteen-Mile Brook Trail from Route 16 north of Pinkham Notch. It sleeps 40 in two stone bunkhouses, runs full service from June 4 to September 19, 2026, and self service from September 23 through the winter. It is the farthest hut from Lincoln, well over an hour to the trailhead, and the quietest; a night there in October, with the ponds freezing and the Rampart boulders to explore, is a hut experience of a different century.
The best hut day hikes from the lodge
Lonesome Lake for lunch is the easy classic: 15 min to the trailhead, an hour and a bit up, soup on the porch, the ridge in the lake, and home for a nap. Zealand Falls is the long, flat version with a waterfall at the end. Greenleaf is the serious day, up the Old Bridle Path to the hut and either back down or on to Lafayette's summit and the ridge if the forecast allows. Mizpah is the gentle Presidential taste, a few minutes from the Crawford Depot. Each is covered in our hike guides, and each hut sells soup and baked goods to day visitors between ten and five in the full-service season.
The classic overnights
Two nights at the lodge with one night at a hut in between is the shape most guests choose. Lonesome Lake for a first hut night, with the Kinsmans or Cannon the next day. Greenleaf for a sunrise on Lafayette and the ridge to Little Haystack before breakfast is cold. Galehead and Zealand as a two-night traverse of the Twin Range from the Gale River trailhead to Zealand Road, with the Twins, Guyot and the Bonds along the way and the AMC shuttle to close the loop. Mizpah and Lakes of the Clouds as the southern Presidential traverse from Crawford Notch to the Cog's base road, Washington included on a perfect day.
For the ambitious, the full hut-to-hut traverse from Lonesome Lake to Carter Notch runs about fifty-six miles over a week and collects most of the range's great summits. Lincoln is where it starts, and where the car waits.
The hiker shuttle and the logistics
The AMC's hiker shuttle runs a loop of the White Mountain trailheads from June into October, twenty dollars a ride for members and twenty-four for others in 2026, by reservation at 603-466-2727, which is what makes one-way hut traverses possible without two cars. In 2026 it does not stop at Lincoln Woods because of the trail closure, and riders bound for the Highland Center at Crawford Notch use the Forest Service's Crawford Connector lot rather than the center's own parking. Pets and alcohol are not carried.
Pack for a hut night as for a day hike plus a sheet sack, a headlamp, earplugs, a small towel, cash or a card for the snack counter, and the layers the higher-summits forecast calls for; leave the tent, the stove and the cooking gear at the lodge, which is the point. The huts have no showers and no electricity for guests, and cell service is a rumor at most of them.
Where to stay
The lodge is the bed before and after. Lafayette Place and the Lonesome Lake trailhead are 12 min up the notch, the Greenleaf trailhead about 16 min; Zealand Road is 40 min; the Gale River trailhead is about half an hour; the Crawford Depot and the Cog base road are 40 to 50 min. Guests heading for a hut leave a bag and a car with us, walk in for a night or two, and come back to a hot shower and a real bed, which is the order most people prefer after a bunkroom.
Tell us your hut dates when you book and we will hold the suite around them. We keep the AMC's season dates and the shuttle schedule in the digital guidebook, and we are glad to talk through which hut fits your legs and your week.
Useful links
- AMC huts and lodges in New Hampshire
Every hut's page with its current season, prices and reservations. - AMC White Mountains hiker shuttle
Routes, stops, fares and reservations for one-way hut trips. - Mount Washington Observatory higher-summits forecast
Greenleaf, Lakes and Madison sit at or above treeline; read it before every hut night. - White Mountain National Forest: alerts and closures
The Lincoln Woods closure and the seasonal gate on Zealand Road. - hikeSafe: the code and the card
The six-point hiker responsibility code and the $25 / $35 voluntary card. - Our Lonesome Lake Trail guide
The walk to the closest hut, with the parking reality at Lafayette Place. - Our Zealand Falls guide
The flat railroad-grade walk to the hut and the falls, and the winter approach. - Our Mount Lafayette guide
The mountain above Greenleaf Hut and the ridge that makes a hut night there worth it.
Sources & official info: outdoors.org · outdoors.org · outdoors.org · outdoors.org · outdoors.org · outdoors.org
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
