[39] Lafayette Brook Scenic Area
GPS @44.18315,-71.685426
Lafayette Brook Scenic Area, Mt Lafayette in the background (ScenicNH.com Photography)
The Lafayette Brook Scenic Area is viewable from The Hugh Gallen Wayside, an overlook named after the US Congressman and two term NH Governor. As you look east from the viewing area, the Lafayette Brook Scenic Area spreads before you, rising upward to the impressive summit of Mount Lafayette 5,249 feet above sea level. This is one of six Scenic Areas established during the 50th Anniversary of the Weeks Act in 1961.
If you were standing at this spot at the turn of the 20th Century, you might see The Profile & Franconia Notch Railroad rumble across a trestle over Lafayette Brook to deliver guests to The Profile House, a secluded resort that existed at the present site of the Cannon Aerial Tramway. If you look down at the brook from the Hugh Gallen Wayside, you can still see the trestle’s abutments. During the height of the logging era, most of Franconia Notch remained under the ownership of the Profile House, which is likely part of the reason some of the woods in the Lafayette Brook Scenic Area were never cut.
Historical Photo: "The Great Trestle, Profile & Franconia Notch, R.R." (Govatski)
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Directions to Next Site:
The final stop on the Weeks Act Legacy Trail is the oldgrowth forest of The Lafayette Brook Scenic Area located on the back slope of Eagle Cliff. Access to the old growth trees requires a bushwhack from the Hugh Gallen Wayside along Lafayette Brook. Eagle Cliff shields the forest from view along the Franconia Notch Parkway.
