Jefferson Notch Road is a seasonal road that runs through the White Mountain National Forest. It connects Base Road in Crawford's Purchase with Valley Road in Jefferson, passing through Chandler's Purchase, Thompson, and Meserve's Purchase, and Low and Burbank's Grant. The road reaches the highest elevation of any public highway in New Hampshire, at 3,008 feet above sea level. The road was built in 1901-1902 to link the Crawford House with Jefferson Highlands, a popular tourist destination at the time. The road offers views of the western Presidentials, and access to hiking trails such as Caps Ridge Trail, which leads to the summit of Mount Jefferson. The road is closed during the winter months due to snow and ice, but it is open from late spring to autumn.

In the decades prior to 1911, the unregulated logging practices of private timber companies in the White Mountains had resulted in a damaged landscape susceptible to both fire and flood. Fires had burned thousands of acres, and flash floods affected the water power necessary to the mills of major industrial centers downstream, such as Manchester, New Hampshire, and Lowell, Massachusetts. Concerns over losses to industry, business, and tourism, and the growing conservation movement led to citizen action. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF) spearheaded an effort to ensure the permanent protection of the White Mountains from further depredation. After years of lobbying and intense public pressure, Senator John Weeks of Massachusetts, a native of Lancaster, New Hampshire, introduced legislation that became known as the Weeks Act. The Weeks Act was passed by Congress in 1911, appropriating 9 million dollars to purchase 6 million acres of land in the Eastern U.S. In turn, this led to the creation of the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) in 1918, and twenty-one other national forests throughout the north and southeast. Many of the groups who were instrumental in the passage of the Weeks Act, including the SPNHF and the AMC, are still active today, and the WMNF has grown from 7,000 acres to almost 800,000. Today, the reforested mountains and hillsides supply forest products and provide magnificent recreational opportunities while maintaining healthy watersheds and ecosystems.