Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / New Hampshire / Presidential Range

Presidential Traverse (Appalachian Trail over the Presidentials)

White Mountain National Forest (Randolph to Crawford Notch)

The Presidential Traverse crosses the high ridge of the White Mountains from Randolph to Crawford Notch, over Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, and Pierce. Most of the middle of the route follows the Appalachian Trail. SectionHiker calls it “one of the most famous and strenuous hikes in the White Mountains,” and its trip plan counts about 14 miles above treeline.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy notes that New Hampshire has 15.2 miles of the trail above treeline, more than any other trail state, and that snow has fallen in the Presidential Range in every month of the year.

The hike

SectionHiker’s plan starts at the Appalachia trailhead on Route 2 and climbs the Valley Way. The Forest Service’s Valley Way tentsite is about 3.1 miles up, and AMC’s Madison Spring Hut is at 3.8 miles. AMC describes this climb as strenuous, with 3,550 feet of gain.

From the hut, the plan takes in Mt. Madison (4.3 miles) and then turns south over Mt. Adams (5.7 miles) to Thunderstorm Junction. The Randolph Mountain Club’s cabins and shelters, Crag Camp, Gray Knob, The Perch, and the Log Cabin, sit below the ridge here, off Lowe’s Path. (See Crag Camp and Gray Knob for an overnight built around them.)

The ridge continues past Edmands Col and Mt. Jefferson, which SectionHiker calls the windiest peak, to the summit of Mt. Washington at about 10.1 miles. AMC’s Lakes of the Clouds Hut sits 1.3 miles below the summit, on the southern flank of Washington, and AMC puts it 6.8 miles from Madison Hut. From there the Crawford Path follows the southern ridge over Monroe, Eisenhower, and Pierce. AMC’s Mizpah Spring Hut and the Nauman tentsite are 4.8 miles past Lakes of the Clouds, and the plan ends at Crawford Notch after an optional climb of Mt. Jackson, for 21.4 miles in all.

Weather drives every decision. “The weather in the Presidential Range is frequently poor,” SectionHiker warns, and July has the greatest thunderstorm danger. New Hampshire’s state parks division reports an average summit wind of 35 mph, an average temperature of 27.1°F, and a 231-mph gust measured on April 12, 1934. The Mount Washington Observatory posts its Higher Summits Forecast at 5 a.m. and updates it at 3 p.m., and radios it to AMC hut caretakers each morning.

SectionHiker recommends west-side bailouts, the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, Edmands Path, or the Mizpah Cutoff to the Crawford Path, because they have better road access. For a valley approach to the same ridge, see the Great Gulf and the Dry River Trail.

Tips

Camping

Above treeline, where trees are less than 8 feet tall, camping is prohibited unless there are at least 2 feet of snow, and wood and charcoal fires are banned, according to the Forest Service’s White Mountain visitor brochure. The brochure also lists Forest Protection Areas: no camping within a quarter mile of huts, shelters, cabins, and developed tentsites except at designated sites, and on the Androscoggin District, no camping within 200 feet of the Valley Way from the Scar Trail junction to Madison Hut. In the Cutler River drainage above treeline (Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines, the Alpine Garden, and the East Snowfields), camping is closed regardless of snow.

AMC’s full-service huts take reservations, bunkrooms are unheated, and dogs aren’t allowed overnight. RMC camps are first come, first served for a fee, with no reservations. SectionHiker lists the Valley Way and Nauman tentsites as first come, first served. Fees are not listed here.

Inside Intel: In its 2022 lodging guide, SectionHiker marks Crag Camp and The Perch as “Highly Recommended,” calling The Perch a “three-sided shelter and adjacent tent platforms on the northern side of Mt Adams.” It notes that at the RMC camps “you need to bring your own bedding, food, and stove.”

Trail facts

The Lowdown

Tent platforms at The Perch:

RMC's Perch pairs a three-sided shelter with tent platforms, and you bring your own bedding to the RMC camps. If hard surfaces leave your hips aching, try these side-sleeper fixes.

See the tips →

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.