North Twin Mountain

North Twin Mountain is a 4,761-foot mountain in Grafton County, New Hampshire. It is part of the Twin Range of the White Mountains and lies about one mile north of its higher neighbor, South Twin Mountain. North Twin is the twelfth-highest of the New Hampshire 4,000-footers. The summit is wooded with limited views, but a short spur near the top leads to ledges that offer excellent vistas, including sights of South Twin Mountain, the Franconia Ridge, and the Pemigewasset Wilderness. North Twin Mountain is the slightly lower sibling of South Twin, located about one mile to its north. The “Twin Mountains” name dates back to at least the 19th century; some say the nearby village of Twin Mountain was named for these peaks, and vice versa. North Twin’s summit is wooded with limited views, but just below it, a short spur path leads to ledges that offer excellent vistas (including a striking perspective on South Twin, the Franconia Ridge, and the depths of the Pemigewasset Wilderness). This wilderness, which North Twin overlooks, was extensively logged and burned from the 1880s into the 1940s, leaving vast clear-cuts and charred land. In 1984, the area was designated as the Pemigewasset Wilderness under federal law, protecting 45,000 acres and allowing the forest to recover to its natural state. Thus, North Twin today stands guard over a rewilded landscape. Traces of old logging camps and rail grades can still be found in the valleys below. North Twin itself never had a fire tower or buildings; its main human history is the trail network (the North Twin Trail and others) built by the AMC in the early 1900s to facilitate tramping in this once-devastated, now-pristine region.