June 8, 2026 8:29 PM | Sugar Hill, NH

Milky Way Over the Lupines: Chasing a Sunset in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire

In 2024 and 2025 I somehow missed out on shooting lupines in Maine and New Hampshire, so this year I was determined to make up for it. This day I knew it would be no moon, so I could get the Milky Way over a field of lupines in Sugar Hill, NH. I took the 2 hour, 15 minute ride up there just in time to catch the prettiest pink sunset over a random patch of pink lupines within a field of purple ones. I had been to the location before, but never knew where the lupines were, so I was excited to see how beautiful it really was

Sugar Hill: New Hampshire’s Lupine Capital

Sugar Hill is a tiny town of fewer than 600 people tucked into the White Mountains near Franconia, and every June it punches way above its weight thanks to one flower. For decades, fields, gardens, and roadsides across town have filled with tall spikes of purple, pink, blue, and white lupines, set against sweeping views of the Franconia and Presidential ranges. The bloom draws photographers, painters, and casual visitors from all over the country, and it’s grown into an annual Celebration of Lupine that started in the early 1990s as a small effort to bring visitors to town during an otherwise quiet stretch before summer. Today it’s a month-long draw complete with an open-air market, local vendors, and photography workshops.

Lupines typically peak in Sugar Hill during the first half of June, though bloom timing shifts a little each year depending on the weather. Interestingly, most of the garden-variety lupines that carpet the fields here aren’t native to New Hampshire; the only truly native species is the wild sundial lupine. But non-native or not, they’ve more than earned their place, feeding pollinators and enriching the soil while turning this quiet corner of the White Mountains into one of the most photographed landscapes in northern New England each early summer.