Tuckerman Ravine: Alpine Ravine System
Description: An extremely popular destination for both summer and winter recreation, Tuckerman Ravine is also a hotspot for interesting and unusual biodiversity. The steep-sided bowl is a cirque, formed when an alpine glacier remained to carve it after the larger continental ice-sheet had retreated to the north. Vegetation still clings to the loose soil in places, collectively making up an alpine ravine/snowbank system. This ecological system contains several rare and exemplary natural communities, as well as a plethora of alpine plants and wildlife. Alpine ravine shrub thicket community is extensive here. Hikers should stay on marked trails and observe all the standard safety precautions of above-treeline travel.
Directions: Park at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center parking area of Rte. 16 between Jackson and Gorham. Take the Tuckerman Ravine Trail west about 3 miles up to the floor of the ravine.
Landowner: White Mountain National Forest
Images (hold mouse over image for caption)
Tuckerman Ravine headwall (photo by Ben Kimball)
herbaceous snowbank community (foreground) at the base of the Tuckerman Ravine headwall
(photo by Ben Kimball)
Tuckerman Ravine in late spring (photo by Ben Kimball)
Link: www.cs.dartmouth.edu/whites/tuckermans.html
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