Kancamagus Pass, the highway's highest point at about 2,855 feet, on the shoulder of Mount Kancamagus.
You're crossing the roof of this road right about here — Kancamagus Pass, two thousand eight hundred and fifty-five feet above the sea, the highest point on the whole highway, riding the shoulder of Mount Kancamagus itself. This height-of-land is a great divide: rain that falls behind us runs west to the Pemigewasset and on to the Merrimack; rain ahead runs east down the Swift River to the Saco and the sea at Maine. Watch for the paired overlooks up here, and one of them carries a curious name — the Wangan Ground. 'Wangan' is an old Abenaki word that came to mean two things at once: a native meeting-place, AND, later, the supply depot that followed the logging crews — the wagon of provisions, the company store in the woods. Notice too how the trees changed as we climbed: the maples and beeches gave way to dark, spire-topped spruce and fir, a cooler northern forest that feels almost like Canada — because in climate, up here, it nearly is. From here on it's downhill; we spill off the pass and drop into the valley of the Swift River, one waterfall and gorge after another, nearly all the way to Conway. Ease off the gas and let's coast down into it.