Mount Pemigewasset (Indian Head)

Author's Comments

Most photographers driving north on 93 are headed for Franconia Ridge or the Flume, and Pemigewasset sits quietly in the middle of that traffic, watching everyone go past. The trail leaves from the same parking lot as the Flume Gorge and almost no one takes it. That is the first gift. The second is the ledges themselves. After less than two miles through a fairly ordinary hardwood forest, the trees open and you are suddenly standing on a south-facing cliff with the Pemigewasset valley unrolling below you. Not a framed view through trees. A cliff-edge view, the kind that makes you sit down for a minute before you trust yourself near the edge with a tripod. I came here for sunset in early October and stayed past dark. The valley faces south, which is the unusual gift of this particular ledge - most White Mountain overlooks face east or west and give you one good hour. Pemigewasset gives you the long, slow side light of late afternoon working across the entire valley, the ridges layering into haze, the river catching glints of gold where it bends. A wide lens is the right choice. So is patience. You will likely have the summit to yourself, or nearly so. That is rarer in the Whites than it used to be, and I do not take it for granted.

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