The Flume Gorge boardwalk runs with granite on one shoulder and the brook that cut Franconia Notch under the boards. Cannon Mountain's cliff face is the other wall of that gap, and Lafayette Place is the campground in the trees beneath it. From Lincoln the Kancamagus Highway runs east to Conway, a national-forest road with campgrounds in the woods off the pavement.
Lafayette Place is a tent campground under the cliff. Sleep at Cannon RV Park on Echo Lake, reservation-only through Columbus Day, and lock that pad before you lock the van. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, New Hampshire RV rentals are the other size.
Cannon Mountain's aerial tramway is closed for replacement as of September 2026. Plan the notch around the Flume boardwalk and the hiking on that cliff face.
East on the Kancamagus, Hancock Campground is the one with some sites you can reserve through Recreation.gov, with a 4-day advance minimum. Jigger Johnson, Passaconaway, and Blackberry Crossing are first-come. Covered Bridge Campground is the Conway-side stop, in the woods behind the covered bridge at the entrance, whose height limit sends tall vans around by Passaconaway Road.
Crawford Notch is the next gap south, with Dry River Campground in the woods and no hookups. It follows the usual state-park season, Memorial Day through mid-October, then goes primitive.
Mount Washington is the high day out of Pinkham Notch. Dolly Copp near Gorham is the Forest Service overnight for that side of the range. The summit is a guided tour or the Cog Railway, and the van stays below.
Fall is when those same sites and the same vans get scarce together. The White Mountains and the Great North Woods turn first in late September, Monadnock and the Merrimack Valley follow into early October, and the seacoast waits until early October. A peak-foliage booking has to name a region.
Lake Winnipesaukee and the Lakes Region
Lake Winnipesaukee is the lake week, and Ellacoya State Park puts an RV row on the shoreline with the Ossipee Range on the far side. Those pads are reservation-only, full hookups, and tents are not allowed. Book that row first on a summer weekend.
White Lake State Park is the wooded night, no hookups, with a dump station on site. Weirs Beach is the boardwalk town on the same lake if you want a walk after dinner.
Hampton Beach and the seacoast
Hampton Beach State Park runs a full-hookup RV campground on the ocean, sand and dunes between the pads and the water. Odiorne Point and Rye are the quieter shore for a day. Portsmouth is the town at the north end of that coast.
Umbagog Lake and the Great North Woods
Umbagog Lake is the north-woods overnight, a base campground with electric and water and a second ring of sites you only reach by boat. The park offers camper transportation out to those remote pads. The base camp stays open later than the Kancamagus campgrounds.
On Route 3 north of Pittsburg, moose come to the roadside salt licks at dawn and dusk in late spring and early summer. NH Fish and Game treats that stretch to the Canadian border as an official viewing corridor, and Dixville Notch has a platform at one of the licks. Lake Francis, Coleman, and Mollidgewock are the other campground names along that same north end of the state.
Mount Monadnock
Grand Monadnock breaks out of the trees into bare rock, and there is no taller peak within 30 miles. Gilson Pond Campground is the overnight at Monadnock State Park. Greenfield State Park is the other van night in that southwest corner, and Keene is the town on that side of the state.
Pawtuckaway and Bear Brook
Pawtuckaway State Park is the Manchester overnight, glacial boulders in the woods and a fire tower on the ridge, no hookups on any site. Bear Brook is the other southern night, the largest developed state park in New Hampshire, with a campground at Beaver Pond. Nashua and Concord are in that same southern band if that is where the week starts.
Sunapee, the Upper Valley, Cardigan, and the Moosilauke corner are a Lebanon trip. That is the week if it is the Connecticut River and Sunapee instead of Franconia.
Maine starts at Portland or keeps going to Acadia, and the rest of Maine is farther up the coast.
Burlington is the overnight on the Vermont side. South, Boston is the city and the rest of Massachusetts is beyond it.
