Lonesome Lake Hut

Lonesome Lake Hut is a hike-in lodge on the southwest shore of Lonesome Lake, at 2,730 feet in Franconia Notch State Park. It makes a good lake-side break or overnight stop, with Franconia Ridge across the water. From Lafayette Campground Trailhead, the direct route follows Lonesome Lake Trail for 1.6 miles and climbs about 1,000 feet; allow roughly one to two hours for the climb. This is an uphill woodland hike, not a quick roadside stop. Don’t park on either shoulder of I-93; parking there is illegal.

During service periods, day visitors can use the dining room, bathrooms and potable-water refills, and buy hot drinks, snacks and limited gear. Soup and bread at lunch are part of full-service season. Full-service overnights include communal dinner and breakfast; in self-service season, guests bring food and prepare it in the hut kitchen.

Two bunkhouses provide sleeping space for 48 people, with rooms for four to seven. Mattresses are provided, but the rooms are unheated, with no electricity or overhead lighting. Dogs aren’t allowed overnight.

The hut dock looks across Lonesome Lake toward Franconia Ridge, the defining view here. From the dock, frame the ridge across the water for the classic hut-and-mountain scene. Visitors can also sit by the water or swim before heading back.

In 1876, New York author William C. Prime and William F. Bridge bought the lake, stocked it with trout, and built two summer cabins. The hut opened in 1929, closed during wartime seasons and reopened in 1946; the current building replaced the earlier one in 1964–65. In the 1970s it hosted the first all-women crew in the AMC hut system, and in 1978 it hired that system’s first autumn caretaker.