Lodging for White Mountains Hiking: Base Towns by Trail Access

North Conway, on Route 16, has more lodging than any other White Mountains town, from motels and family hotels to independent inns. Pinkham Notch, where the Tuckerman Ravine Trail starts, is about 25 minutes north, and the AMC's Joe Dodge Lodge at Pinkham Notch is closer still, with the trail starting at the lodge.

North Conway's Route 16 strip is busy with outlet shopping. For a quieter base, Jackson, about 15 minutes north, has a covered bridge, the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation's trail network and several inns in or near the village, including The Wentworth and Eagle Mountain House.

The Franconia Notch corridor, on I-93, is the base for the Franconia Ridge Loop, an 8.9-mile circuit over Little Haystack, Lincoln and Lafayette, with nearly 2 miles of open ridge above treeline. It starts at Lafayette Place in Franconia Notch State Park, where the lots often fill early on summer weekends. Lodging in Franconia and on the hilltop in Sugar Hill is 10 to 15 minutes from the trailhead.

The Franconia Inn, on 65 acres in the Easton Valley, faces Mount Lafayette and the Kinsman Range. Hideaway Inn Franconia Notch, the surviving annex of the Sunset Hill grand hotel, looks east to the White Mountains from its ridge in Sugar Hill and is a short drive from Cannon Mountain and the Franconia Notch trailheads.

Bretton Woods and Crawford Notch, on Route 302, are the base for the western approach to the Presidential Range. The Crawford Path, cut in 1819, climbs from Crawford Notch to Mount Washington's summit along a ridge that is more gradual than the Tuckerman Ravine route from the east, though much of it is exposed above treeline. The AMC's Highland Center, at the head of Crawford Notch, is close to several trailheads and runs guided hikes and natural history programs.

The Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, a 1902 grand hotel and National Historic Landmark, faces the Presidential Range and suits hikers who want a full-service hotel. The Notchland Inn in Hart's Location, about 15 minutes southeast through the notch, is a smaller 1860s inn with the same Crawford Notch trails and lower rates.

The Appalachian Mountain Club runs eight backcountry huts in the White Mountains, all reached only by trail. In the full-service season they serve dinner and breakfast family-style, and staying in them makes hut-to-hut traverses possible. AMC hut reservations fill quickly for July and August weekends. Lakes of the Clouds Hut, the highest at 5,012 feet and the largest, sleeping 90, is often booked out on summer weekends; Zealand Falls Hut, 2.8 miles in, and Lonesome Lake Hut are shorter hikes that suit less experienced hikers.

The huts make itineraries possible that base-town lodging cannot: waking up above treeline, starting a summit hike at dawn and spending several nights in a row in the range. Hut rates, which include dinner and breakfast, are closer to a mid-range inn than to a campsite. The AMC also runs Joe Dodge Lodge at Pinkham Notch, with private rooms, bunk rooms and optional meal plans.

The White Mountains hiking season runs from late May through mid-October at lower elevations, while above treeline on the Presidential Range winter conditions are common from October through May. Snow, ice and severe wind are possible on Mount Washington in any month: the summit recorded a gust of 231 mph in April 1934, still the record for the Northern and Western Hemispheres. Check the Mount Washington Observatory's summit forecast before any hike above treeline, in any season.

July and August have the longest days and the busiest trailheads. Late September and early October bring good hiking weather, fall color at lower elevations and the first frost on the upper ridges, and lodging is easier to find in September than in July or August, often at lower rates.