Lost River Gorge’s boardwalk trail is close to 4,000 feet long and visitors descend about 300 feet once inside, according to General Manager Kate Weatherell. It’s been protected since 1927, when the Forest Society completed a successful campaign to conserve 6,000 acres in Franconia Notch (also including the Old Man of the Mountain), which the state of New Hampshire has owned ever since.

Its walls are up to 90 feet tall and 20 feet apart. The Flume Gorge extends 800 feet from the base of Mount Liberty. So how do the state’s top gorges stack up? You might not know, however, that the nonprofit Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has been integral to protecting three of the state’s most famous gorges: Chesterfield Gorge, The Flume Gorge, and Lost River Gorge.Īll are great places to enjoy nature this summer and beat the heat, without schlepping towels, chairs, and umbrellas to the beach. (Photo: Anna Berry)Īs a transplant to New Hampshire from Alaska, where I knew more about glaciers than gorges, I came to know the Franconia Notch attraction as just “The Flume.”īut, it turns out that a flume is just a gorge - and a gorge is very similar to a canyon, except steeper and narrower. Jonah Berry looks up from inside Lost River Gorge, where trees create a cool shaded microclimate similar to other ravines and gorges that are forested.

Flume gorge