Bald Mountain and Artists Bluff are located at the northern most part of Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This is one of the top tourist spots for a reason, a short and fun hike is rewarded with spectacular views. Watch our video of our trip below:
The Artists Bluff hike is a loop of just over 2 miles. Although you can choose to skip bald mountain and simply go to artists bluff instead, I don't recommend this! While this is a popular hike there is more then adequate parking, both at the trail head and across the street at the ski lift lot. After walking across a large paved area you will come to the trailhead where you can choose your route and we began our ascent to Bald Mountain.
Most of the trail is root filled dirt paths, but both sections of the hike are also filled with stone stairs. The final leg of Bald Mountain has some fun and easy boulders to climb as well! We saw plenty of families with small children making the climb so it's perfectly safe for everyone and worth the detour. We took lots of photos from here and while many don't consider the views as good, it's still impressive!
The nice thing about hiking to Artists Bluff from Bald Mountain is that the path is fairly direct and much more down hill then up. If you were to go directly to the bluff you'll find a very very steep climb. We went quite early in the day and while Bald Mountain was virtually empty, Artists Bluff was absolutely slammed with people. Don't expect to be alone here, ever. There were even TWO photo shoots occurring! The views are still 100% worth it. There is a reason this bluff received it's name, this is easily one of the best views in the entire state.
After returning to the trailhead we noticed there was a sign hanging from the post, seeking a car key that was dropped in the woods. We had seen a key hanging from a tree on our way up... so we made a full sprint a mile back up to retrieve the key and helped the guy out. We were on a tight schedule so we really had no choice but to run. After reviewing our footage though, we realized the sign had been there from the beginning and we just didn't notice! So lesson learned, you can avoid a mile sprint up hill if you just pay attention :)
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