AMC Greenleaf Hut — Hotel in Franconia

Excellent hut with great staff! Special thanks to May 💕 3 high bunk beds, large wood common room to play games with a beautiful view over the mountains and a glass of lemonade, cup of coffee, tea, a pastry or cup of soup if you’re passing through. We stayed overnight, coming up via the Falling waters trail, and along the gorgeous vistas of Little Haystack, Mt Lincoln and Mt Lafayette, then down to the Greenleaf hut. Dinner is at 6 with soup, freshly baked bread, salad, main and super secret desert 😋 lights out at 9.30. Wake up at 6.30, breakfast at 7 with bacon, eggs and oatmeal. Staff did a hilarious skit at breakfast 😁 please put a tip in their tip box and fold your blankets. As for the hike itself, we left trail head at 8am on a Friday mid July, enough parking left. We got to Little Haystack 3 hours later, the last hike up is over boulders, and is a mean back and forth until you see the top. We had amazing clear views as we got up to the ridge and it was an easy hike along the summits where we enjoyed every top with a pause. Going down to Greenleaf is a bit misleading as it seems like a simple walk down, but it was a bit longer than we expected. It took is 6 hours from the parking lot to the hut, but we did take lots of breaks to take in the views. Watch the weather on the summits on High Mountain Weather, it was pretty spot on for us. We hope you have an amazing hike here 😀 We left Greenleaf hut on Saturday morning and we did have a bunch of people coming up Bridlepath while descending. Based on our itinerary I would recommend going up Falling Waters, since you’ll probably encounter more people hiking up Falling Waters on a weekend day, as opposed to when you’re coming down Bridlepath. I hope this helps, enjoy this amazing hike and yes, be proud you did it! PS we’re from Florida so we’re not used to mountains 😉 but with some smaller hikes to see where you’re at (we went to Zealand Falls Hut first (1.5 hours) and down via Thoreau Falls (3.5 hours) it should get you in the mood. Bring 2 bottles of water, extra shirt, rain jacket and sweater, toiletries and and a sheet sleeping bag and you...

We stayed here on 10/6 so it was the end of the season, maybe that had something to do with it; we've stayed at several other huts and everything was great. Usually the food and the croo are excellent, however on this trip the food was almost inedible. They had mushroom soup which was water with some cut mushrooms and oil, lasagna that I'm at a loss as to how they could have burnt it that badly, and breakfast was chewy oatmeal and cold 'mint' pancakes that were even worse than they sound.The theme of the food seemed to be burnt and gross which is the only way to describe the attempt at dessert; a concoction of brownie and cookie that you could not cut into due to the black, burnt bottom. It was clear the 'croo' could care less, major bummer compared to what we had in past huts. As part of their morning skit they dumped an entire mop bucket of water on the floor, which made it to the tables everyone was sitting at, about half of which were wearing slippers or socks. I made several trips back to the bunk room to grab people's boots for them before they could leave the table. It seemed little children were running the...

We needed this "hut" for a break from the elements. Long benches make seating communal style fun. Even though everyone is tired the chance to mingle still exists. Just make sure you are on the Old Bridle trail when you depart. Taking the wrong option will mean backtracking and losing time needed to get off the mountain. With soup or sandwich options, this place does well to lift spirits, even coffee for a pick me up. Rooms with bunks for travelers also on site, with coed bathrooms (stalls) , so don't panic. Last 2.9 miles after the hut felt like 4 miles. Still plenty of boulders to traverse on the trail. Leave with enough time to reach your vehicle or pack headlamps. Otherwise you are at the mercy of others with lamps which mY not...