Lincoln Travel Guide
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Some 25 miles north of Waterville Valley are the towns of Lincoln and North Woodstock, as well as the Loon Mountain ski resort (just east of Lincoln). These towns are also the start (or end) of the Kancamagus Highway, a 35-mile route that's one of the White Mountains' most scenic drives.
In the former mill town of Lincoln and adjacent village of North Woodstock, you'll find mundane stores, fast-food chains, and no-frills motels. Lincoln has embraced strip-mall development; North Woodstock has retained some native charm in a vestigial village center. Neither will win any awards for quaintness. Loon Mountain opened in 1966 and was criticized early on for its mediocre skiing, though some upgrading since has brought the mountain greater respect.
At times, it seems that Lincoln underwent not so much a development boom in the 1980s and 1990s as a development spasm. Clusters of condos now blanket the lower hillsides of this narrow valley. The Loon Mountain base village is usually lively with skiers in winter, but summer has a post-nuclear-fallout feel to it, with few people in evidence. The ambience is also compromised by that peculiar style of resort architecture that's simultaneously aggressive and bland.
As is true for Waterville Valley, other towns of the White Mountains are much more distinct and interesting than this trio. You're better off pressing onward.
