Days after leaf-peepers overcrowd trail, NH park responds

FRANCONIA, N.H. – A New Hampshire state park is sharing how it plans to “accommodate everyone who wants to visit” after an image of leaf-peepers packed together on a popular New Hampshire foliage trail went viral.
The photo taken in Franconia showed a bottlenecked path on the 1.5-mile Artist’s Bluff loop. Tamara Breau, an experienced hiker who snapped the picture on Saturday, said “it was chaos” on the trail.
“There was no order, there was nobody being polite about it,” she told WBZ-TV. “People were just trying to shove their way through.”
Franconia Notch State Park released a statement on Wednesday about the holiday weekend scene. They said they don’t track attendance at the no-fee trailhead, but noted all 1,500 parking spaces were full on Saturday and Sunday. 
Staff members had been anticipating a busy day on the trail, the park said.
“The majority of the crowding and congestion was isolated to a few locations within the park,” the statement read. “The Division of Parks and Recreation will be reviewing existing management strategies, including expanded parking, shuttle services, prearrival communications, and collaborative stewardship with our partners to be sure we can accommodate everyone who wants to visit.”
The park also said that overcrowding is generally not an issue at Artist’s Bluff “outside of a few high visitation days in the fall season.”
Overall, 3.7 million people are expected to visit New Hampshire this fall, the state’s travel bureau says. Franconia Notch State Park has seen nearly 60,000 paid visitors this October to attractions like the aerial tramway on Cannon Mountain and Flume Gorge.
Social media campaigns are encouraging tourists to plan their trips in advance, “and to consider visiting lesser known state parks and trails,” the statement said. The New Hampshire State Parks Facebook page on Wednesday shared 10 hidden gem locations that it said “often do not see as many visitors compared to other more popular sites.”