Lincoln is the best foliage base in New England for a simple reason: two of the country's great leaf roads start at the edge of town, and four more are within an hour. This page is the roster — each drive with the real time it takes done properly, which direction to run it and when in the day, and which week of the season it peaks, so you can match the route to the calendar.
One rule governs all of them in foliage season: drive early or late. The first two hours of light and the last two are when the color is lit from the side, the pullouts are empty, and the road is yours. Ten to three on an October weekend is a procession. Plan the marquee drives around breakfast and dinner, and put a hike or a lunch in the middle.
1. The Kancamagus Highway — the one everyone means
About 34 miles from Lincoln to Conway with no towns, no services and no billboards, over a 2,855-foot pass and along the Swift River, with overlooks purpose-built for this month. Straight through is an hour; with the stops it deserves — the pass overlooks, Sabbaday Falls, Rocky Gorge or Lower Falls, the Albany covered bridge — it is a proper half day. It starts at our end of town, so we can be at the pass before the day-trippers reach Exit 32.
Run it eastbound at dawn with the sun behind you for the overlooks, or westbound at sunset into the long light with the pass ahead. Peak: the middle band in the week of October 4, the valley stretches the week after. Fuel up first — there is nothing for 34 miles.
2. Franconia Notch Parkway — the short, vertical one
Eight miles of parkway from the Flume to Echo Lake, with the Franconia Range on one side and Cannon's cliffs on the other — color stacked against granite better than anywhere else nearby. 20 min to drive; two hours with the Basin, Profile Plaza and a walk. It is the drive to do when you have an hour, and the one whose high slopes turn first.
Peak: the high band in the last week of September, the valley floor of the notch two weeks later. Northbound in the morning, southbound in the evening for the light. Pair with the Artist Bluff climb at Echo Lake for the view down the whole corridor.
3. Kinsman Notch — Route 112 west, the local's back road
West from North Woodstock, Route 112 climbs past Lost River Gorge over Kinsman Notch and drops toward the Connecticut River — two lanes, no services, and a fraction of the Kancamagus's traffic. 25 min to the height of land and back is a fine sunset run; continuing to Woodsville and returning by I-93 makes an hour-and-a-half loop.
Peak: the same weeks as the Kanc's middle band, week of October 4 give or take. The descent into North Woodstock coming home east is one of the prettiest arrivals in the Whites. Daylight and dry pavement — it is a mountain road.
4. The Bear Notch cut — a Kancamagus loop with a bonus pass
From the Kancamagus at the Bear Notch Road junction (about two-thirds of the way toward Conway), Bear Notch Road climbs north over its own small pass to Bartlett on Route 302 — with a string of overlooks looking back over the Kanc valley — and lets you return west via 302 through Crawford Notch or loop back. Bear Notch itself is nine miles and about 20 min; it is closed in winter, open through foliage.
Peak: with the Kanc's middle band. It is the way to turn the Kancamagus from an out-and-back into a loop, and the overlooks are quieter than the marquee ones.
5. The Crawford Notch loop — the full day
The big one: north through Franconia Notch to Route 3, east on 302 through Bethlehem, past the Mount Washington Hotel's red roof at Bretton Woods, down through Crawford Notch past the Willey House and Arethusa Falls' trailhead to Bartlett and Glen, and home over the Kancamagus — or reverse it. About 100 miles and, done properly, a full day with two notches and the Presidentials in the middle. Six hours with stops is realistic.
Peak: the Crawford Notch section runs a few days ahead of us, so it is the drive for the week of September 27 to October 4 when the Kanc's valleys are still catching up. Start early — this is not a drive to be racing the dusk on.
6. Sugar Hill and the Franconia back roads — the postcard village
North of the notch, the back roads around Franconia, Sugar Hill and Easton — Route 117 over Sugar Hill with its view of the Franconia Range across the valley, Route 116 through Easton — are the classic white-church-and-stone-wall New England foliage postcard, with the big peaks as the backdrop. An hour's loop from the notch, quiet even on holiday weekends.
Peak: the valleys here run with ours, week of October 4 into the following week; the view across to the range gives you the high band at the same time. Sunday-morning empty. Polly's Pancake Parlor on Sugar Hill is the traditional stop, and it queues accordingly.
Putting a foliage weekend together
Two nights: Kancamagus at dawn on day one, notch and Artist Bluff in the afternoon; Sugar Hill loop on the morning of day two, home. Three nights adds the Crawford loop as the full day. Our two-night foliage plan and the fall foliage itinerary spell it out hour by hour; the week-by-week tracker tells you which of these is peaking when you arrive.
Where to stay
Two of the six start within 5 min of the door and the rest within an hour. In foliage season we tell guests to head out with coffee before seven and come back for a late breakfast in town — that hour on an empty Kancamagus is worth the alarm.
Sources & official info: fs.usda.gov · visitnh.gov · nhstateparks.org
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
