Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / New Hampshire / Pemigewasset Wilderness

Appalachian Trail: Ethan Pond and Zealand Notch (Crawford Notch to Zealand)

Crawford Notch State Park and White Mountain National Forest (Willey House Station Road to Zealand Road)

This stretch of the Appalachian Trail climbs out of Crawford Notch to Ethan Pond, then follows an old logging railroad grade through Zealand Notch to Zealand Falls Hut. Wikipedia notes the trail follows “an old railroad grade” through the notch, along the side of Whitewall Mountain opposite Zeacliff.

Hike New England puts most of the climbing in the first 1.9 miles, and a 2009 thru-hiker journal describes the trail near Ethan Pond as very flat with a smooth surface.

The hike

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s description starts on Willey House Station Road in Crawford Notch. At 0.3 mile the trail passes the junction for Arethusa and Ripley Falls, and at 1.4 miles the Kedron Flume Trail branches toward the Willey House site. Hike New England’s mile table puts most of the trip’s climbing in the first 1.9 miles. Shortly after, the Willey Range Trail continues straight and the AT turns left onto the Ethan Pond Trail, crossing a height of land and descending gently to the Ethan Pond spur, about 2.6 miles from the trailhead.

Ethan Pond is about 5 acres, with the cliffs of Mount Willey above it, according to Hike New England. The shelter and tent platforms are just past the pond across the inlet brook, on boulders.

West of the pond, the trail follows the old grade past the Shoal Pond Trail and crosses the North Fork of the East Branch on a long footbridge. A 0.1-mile side trail leads to Thoreau Falls, about 100 feet of cascades in Hike New England’s description. The main trail then traverses the east side of Zealand Notch under Whitewall Mountain, where talus from a rockslide sometimes covers the treadway, to the Zeacliff Trail junction and an outlook.

At about mile 7.6, the Ethan Pond Trail ends at Zealand Pond and the Twinway. Zealand Falls Hut is 0.2 mile up the Twinway, with views toward Carrigain Notch and the ledges of Whitewall Brook. From the pond, the Zealand Trail runs about 2.5 miles past beaver wetlands to the Zealand trailhead. Hike New England suggests starting from the Zealand end for an easier hike.

The Twinway continues west from the hut to Mount Guyot and the Bonds; see Zealand to Guyot and the Bonds. A 2010 trip log shows the AT continuing from Garfield Ridge past Galehead and Zealand Falls Huts to Ethan Pond Shelter in a 14.5-mile day, linking this section to Franconia Ridge.

Tips

Camping

No permit is needed. The Forest Service’s Forest Protection Areas ban camping within a quarter mile of Thoreau Falls and of any hut, shelter, or developed tentsite, except at designated sites, and within 200 feet of the East Branch of the Pemigewasset from the wilderness boundary to its crossing with the Thoreau Falls Trail. Inside the Pemigewasset Wilderness, camping is banned within 200 feet of any trail except at designated sites, and groups are limited to 10.

AMC’s Ethan Pond campsite, just off the Ethan Pond Trail beyond Crawford Notch State Park, has 3 small and 2 group platforms, a communal Adirondack shelter, water from the pond, and metal food boxes. It is first come, first served, can’t be reserved, and charges a fee. Zealand Falls Hut is reservation-only; AMC listed its 2026 self-service season as May 8 to 31 and full service as June 4 to Oct. 17; its hut page now lists self-service from Oct. 21, 2026, to May 30, 2027, and full service from June 3 to Oct. 16, 2027.

Inside Intel: A 2009 thru-hiker journal on Cross-Country Trips describes a sign at Ethan Pond pointing to a separate cooking area about 100 meters from the shelter, with bear boxes behind the privy for all food. A VFTT poster who stayed in the shelter on a rainy spring night found it comfortable and dry. Hike New England notes there is little room on the pond’s shoreline itself.

Trail facts

The Lowdown

An open-front lean-to at Ethan Pond:

The communal Adirondack shelter at Ethan Pond keeps the rain off but not the cold, so the bag does the real work on a fall night. See which sleeping bags testers rate.

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Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.