Zealand Notch (el. 2457 ft./749 m.) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the White Mountains of

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is located in the towns of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

, near the northeastern corner of the

Pemigewasset Wilderness The Pemigewasset Wilderness is a federally designated Wilderness Area in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountains. It is a part of the White Mountain National Forest. It is New Hampshire's largest wilderness area. The Wilderness Area cons ...

. The center of the notch is traversed by hiking trails and is approximately from the nearest road. Zealand Pond, Zealand Falls, and the Zealand Falls hut are located near the height of land. Similarly to

Crawford Notch Crawford Notch is a major pass through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, located in Hart's Location. Roughly half of that town is contained in Crawford Notch State Park. The high point of the notch, at approximately above sea level, is a ...

to the east, the main body of Zealand Notch comprises a steep-walled,

U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of Glacial period, glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with s ...

running southwards from the height of land. Whitewall Brook flows through the bottom of the notch, reaching the North Fork of the Pemigewasset River at the south end of the notch. Water from Whitewall Brook flows via branches and the main stem of the Pemigewasset to the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...

and ultimately the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northea ...

. North of the notch's height of land, the

Zealand River The Zealand River is a river in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Ammonoosuc River and part of the Connecticut River watershed. The Zealand River rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Hale in t ...

flows north to the

Ammonoosuc River The Ammonoosuc River is a river in northwestern New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows to Long Island Sound. ''Ammonoosuc'' is Abnaki for "small, narrow fishing place". The Ammonoosuc rise ...

near the village of Twin Mountain, with the streamflow eventually reaching the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

and turning south again to ultimately reach

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

. The notch lies between Whitewall Mountain (3,405 ft./1,038 m.) to the east and Zeacliff (approx. 3,600 ft./1,097 m.), an eastern arm of Zealand Mountain, to the west. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

traverses Zealand Notch. From the west, the trail (paired with the Twinway trail) descends from Zeacliff past Zealand Falls (a long series of smooth granite ledges ending in a drop over vertical granite) and Zealand Falls Hut to the center of the notch. Here the Twinway ends, and the Appalachian Trail turns south and follows the Ethan Pond Trail along an old railroad grade through the notch, along the side of Whitewall Mountain, exiting the south end of the notch and continuing east towards Crawford Notch. Other trails in Zealand Notch include the Zealand Trail approaching along the Zealand River from the north, the Lend-a-Hand Trail which reaches Zealand Falls Hut from Mount Hale to the northwest, and the Zeacliff Trail, which descends from the top of Zeacliff straight down the notch wall to Whitewall Brook and the Ethan Pond Trail. The A–Z Trail leaves the Zealand Trail just north of the height of land of the notch and leads east to Crawford Notch at its height of land.

References

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

, 7½ minute

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

series, Crawford Notch quadrangle
Topozone.com
{{Gaps of the Appalachian Mountains Landforms of Grafton County, New Hampshire Notches of New Hampshire

See also

References