While heading down to Conway today I went by the Glen Ellis parking project. I was quite surprised, starting at the entrance they are clear cutting large patches of the woods and leveling the area. Looks like they are going for a Lincoln Woods sized parking area. Its popular with the drive up tourist crowd, but over the years I have rarely seen the sides of the road lined with cars like I do at other drive up attractions. The lot was not set up for buses and expect that that will taken care of.
Glen Ellis Parking Lot - Quite the project
- Thread starter peakbagger
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jrcinnh
Member
It's interesting they would choose that lot to expand. It's full on days when everything is full but not a real hotspot like Pinkham, Lincoln woods or Crawford.
Obviously peakbaggers use it for Iso, Wildcats and Boott spur to George, plus tourists like the falls, maybe trying to pull some cars out of Pinkham lots?
Obviously peakbaggers use it for Iso, Wildcats and Boott spur to George, plus tourists like the falls, maybe trying to pull some cars out of Pinkham lots?
Putting that pedestrian bridge over from the Pinkham overflow lot pretty well solved the Pinkham parking issue a few years ago except for spring weekend and some entity is making sure its plowed before the real high traffic weekends occur. I did notice that at some point in the last year or so that the overflow lot is now signed no camping as it had been a popular place for overnighters during Covid and in the past. AMC does not allow camping in their lot and one of the tasks for the overnight Joe Dodge lodge clerk year ago was to go out and roust violators.
Glen Ellis is a "historical" tourist spot and had gotten special funding a few years ago to upgrade and restore it, they restored and upgraded the actual path under the road to the falls a couple of years ago so this is phase 2. Like other national forest projects they tend to get overboard for special projects while the actual maintenance budgets for everything else usually lags.
Glen Ellis is a "historical" tourist spot and had gotten special funding a few years ago to upgrade and restore it, they restored and upgraded the actual path under the road to the falls a couple of years ago so this is phase 2. Like other national forest projects they tend to get overboard for special projects while the actual maintenance budgets for everything else usually lags.
BTW, if they spend a lot of money on the lot, maybe they will start plowing it in the winter. I see folks parking in sketchy spots along RT 16 in the winter as the lot is not plowed and I think with most folks its too long to walk from Pinkham.
sierra
Well-known member
Pinkham notch has never been a hot spot for Tourist.
JoshandBaron
Well-known member
The roads lined with cars is the same as it is in those other areas. The falls are definitely a hot spot, I often end up parking along the driveway. I also see a bumper sticker everyday that is a tourist badge of honor.
I am not sure I agree regarding tourism counts, plenty of tourists make the loop around Mt Washington in their cars and Glen Ellis is pretty much a standard stopping point. Plenty of tour buses go by but the Glen Ellis lot is not bus friendly as its really just the remains of RT 16 before the highway was relocated long ago. I have also seen the 2 mile backups along RT 16 on fall weekends to access the autoroad. My guess is if they make the Glen Ellis lot more bus friendly its going to get a lot more traffic.
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dailey7779
Member
Three big tourist spots really close to each other with Glen Ellis, Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, and Great Glen. Both PNVC and GG have nice souvenir shops for people to pick up some gifts. Pinkham has a nice tourist hike to Crystal Cascade and while it's not as nice or draws the crowds as Glen Ellis Falls it still is a very impressive cascade. Great Glen during peak foliage is a great place for tourists to view foliage.
Would Clark Griswold pull over to Glen Ellis ?Of course he would 
