Echo Crag Rock Climbing

Drive north on I-93 into Franconia Notch State Park. Continue past the big walls of Cannon and Hounds Hump Ridge to the north side of the Notch. Take Exit 34C (the same exit for the Echo Lake beach) and turn right towards the Governor Gallen Memorial (if you go under the parkway overpass you’ve gone to far). The trail to Echo Crag starts behind the green highway sign just past the exit. To park, continue towards the memorial past the obvious right hand curve. The safest bet is to park at the end of the road near the memorial and hike back up. You can also park along the road after the curve (if you park on the curve or near the trail head you’ll get ticketed or worse). Be warned that a few break ins have occurred at Echo, so secure your valuables, don’t leave anything in plain sight, and lock your vehicle! Hike up to the road sign, and follow the easy path for about 10 minutes back to the crag. About half way down the trail, you’ll come to a jumble of boulders and tress. To the left is a faint trail that leads up to Profile cliff (another 10-15 minutes of hiking). Continue straight to Echo – the first wall will be a somewhat dirty, 20-foot high bouldering wall, followed by the Square Inch Wall. Continue along the base of the crag to reach the other walls.