Mount Lafayette via Greenleaf Trail

The hiker lot is at the Cannon Mountain Tramway access. The trail starts about 200 yards away, reached by the signed park access through the underpass and beside the northbound entrance ramp. Do not park along I-93. Once the trail enters the woods, it runs roughly parallel to the parkway over rocky ground with small rises and dips. A turn brings the sustained climb: a long run of switchbacks that gains height toward Eagle Pass.

Eagle Pass is a narrow cleft between Eagle Cliff and Lafayette’s west shoulder. A broad, slanted granite slab gives you a natural place to stop and look across the notch. Beyond the pass, keep climbing toward Greenleaf Hut. The route crosses the outlet of Eagle Lakes on rocky footing that can be wet during snowmelt. At about 4,220 feet, the hut is a good pause before the hardest part; the Old Bridle Path joins here, but the Lafayette summit is still 1.1 miles farther on.

From the hut, the trail rises onto open alpine ground. The tread stays rough, and there is little cover once you are above treeline. Wind, cold, and poor visibility can change the feel of this climb quickly, so carry layers even when it seems mild lower down. The summit is open rock, with wide views over the Pemigewasset Valley and toward Cannon Mountain, the Kinsmans, and the Franconia Ridge. At the hut, the rocky foreground and Lafayette rising behind it make the route’s signature view; at the summit, look west across the valley rather than only at the next peak.