AMC Recommended Trips—Welton Falls (Easy hike—Lakes Region, NH)

Source: AMC's Southern New Hampshire Trail Guide, Discover Southern New Hampshire

What You’ll See: An easy hike from Cardigan Lodge through woods to a scenic waterfall and deep, mossy ravine. Follow the Holt Trail from the lodge to its intersection with the Manning Trail. Follow the Manning Trail to the falls.

What You’ll Experience

• Difficulty: Easy
• Distance: 2.4-miles round-trip
• Elevation change: 300-foot elevation gain
• Estimated time: 1.5 hours
• Maps: AMC Southern New Hampshire Trail Guide, 2^nd edition, Monadnock–Cardigan map 
• Rapids and falls, as well as spectacular potholes, above and below the main falls
  
• A forest of mixed hardwoods and hemlocks
  

What’s in the Area

• Stay overnight at Cardigan Lodge and Reservation, a 53-bed full-service lodge, also offering platform tents and campsites. Enjoy hearty family-style meals, swim in the pond or sit by the fire with your favorite book.
• Daily programs are available from our resident naturalist during the summer season.

From the northern intersection of NH 104 and US 3A in Bristol, head north on US 3A. In another 2.1 miles, turn left in front of a stone church onto West Shore Road. In another 1.9 miles, continue straight on Cardigan Mountain Road. In another 1.7 miles, bear right at a fork onto Fowler River Road. In another 3.2 miles, take the left fork onto Brook Road, following signs for the AMC’s Cardigan Lodge. In another 1.1 miles, turn right onto Shem Valley Road. In 0.1 mile, bear right at a red schoolhouse. Park on the left in another 1.3 miles, across from Cardigan Lodge.