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A picturesque state park located in the heart of the White Mountains.

In 1808, a 93-year-old woman named "Aunt" Jess Guernsey stumbled upon one of New England's greatest natural wonders while out fishing. She found the Flume Gorge, an 800-foot slot canyon with granite walls rising to almost 90 feet on either side.

Her family didn't believe her at first. An ancient canyon hidden in the woods? The old woman must have lost her marbles. But she finally convinced them to come look for themselves.

They found exactly what she described. And suspended between the granite walls hung a massive egg-shaped boulder, 10 feet high and 12 feet long, wedged above the rushing water. That boulder stayed put for 75 more years until a violent 1883 rainstorm knocked it loose and carved out Avalanche Falls. Nobody has found that boulder since.

The park almost became a lumber operation. In 1923, the Profile House, a grand hotel that could board 600 guests and 350 horses, burned to the ground. The land went up for sale.

Timber companies circled. New Hampshire women's clubs responded by launching a campaign to save the notch, selling trees for one dollar each with certificates of purchase. Over 15,000 people donated.

By June 1928, they had preserved 6,500 acres, and Franconia Notch State Park was officially established.

For most of the 20th century, people came here to see the Old Man of the Mountain. Five granite ledges on Cannon Mountain formed a 40-foot profile of a craggy face when viewed from below.

Nathaniel Hawthorne called it "a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness" and wrote a short story about it in 1850. Daniel Webster declared that God had hung out a sign to show where he makes men.

On May 3, 2003, after 12,000 years of weathering, the Old Man collapsed in the night. New Hampshire mourned. The profile still appears on every state license plate and highway sign.

Walk through the Flume Gorge on wooden boardwalks that thread between dripping granite walls covered in ferns and moss. Climb to Avalanche Falls, the 45-foot waterfall at the top of the gorge.

Swim at Echo Lake with views of Mount Lafayette. Hike a section of the Appalachian Trail along Franconia Ridge. Visit the New England Ski Museum at the base of Cannon Mountain, which opened North America's first aerial tramway in 1938.