Trails Used

East Royce Trail, Royce Connector, Royce Trail, herd path

Trail Conditions

Notes

An enjoyable hike today. The views from the ledge on East were amazing and the woods between East and West were spectacular. The hike from the TH off Rt 113 in Evans Notch was (according to Gaia) 5.8 miles with just over 2400’ of gain. Crossing the top of a beautiful waterfall at the start, led to a cool refreshing dip at the end on a day that just kept getting soupier as it wore on.

Parking

Plenty

Water Crossings

All easily crossed

Wildlife

Only a few buzzers in the col

Trails Used

Highwater Trail, Wild River Road, Burnt Mill Brook Trail, Royce Trail, Laughing Lion Trail, road walk

Trail Conditions

Notes

It had been a couple years since I had hiked in the White Mountains, so yesterday we headed to Evans Notch in the White Mountain National Forest to hike West Royce Mountain. Although I've been up East Royce multiple times, I had never been up the taller West Royce. Even though our hike started and ended in Maine, the summit and much of the ascent were in New Hampshire. After leaving a car at the Laughing Lion Trailhead for our descent, we parked at the Highwater Trailhead, near the Wild River. Our hike started on the Highwater Trail along the north bank of the river. This trails was unexpectedly enjoyable, with impressively large white pines along the trail for quite a way. We following the trail until reaching the site of the former Forest Road 52 bridge at 3.2 miles. Here, we forded the river to the south bank. We then followed the Wild River Road (closed to vehicles since 2023) a short distance to the Burnt Mill Brook Trail. This minimally used trail provide a pleasant ascent up to the col between East and West Royce. It followed a beautiful brook for most of the way with lots of cascades. And, even though it got rather steep near the end, the footbed was generally soft with minimal erosion. After reaching the Royce Trail, were climbed the steep switchbacks to the summit ridge of West Royce. This rather rugged summit ridge had beautiful spruce-fir forest and good views from multiple viewpoints. After checking out the fire tower footings and eating lunch in the shade (It was a hot day!), we spent a little time at the best viewpoint, enjoying the views to the south and east. We descended the Royce Trail to the Laughing Lion Trail, which is both a very enjoyable trail and an interestingly named one. Somewhere in the last couple miles of our hike, we realized that the other set of car keys had been left in the car at the Highwater Trailhead! This unexpectedly added a 5 mile road walk back to the trailhead we had started at, but at least it was all downhill! It was good to be back in the Whites, and we were surprised to only see two other groups of people on such a beautiful day!

Parking

We got the last spot in the Highwater Trail lot. No one else was parked at the Laughing Lion Trailhead.

Water Crossings

Wild River ford at the site of the Forest Road 52 bridge was just under knee deep. All other crossings were hoppable

Wildlife

blackflies were somewhat annoying at times