The Sawyer River is a 9.1 mile long (14.6 km) river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in the White Mountains

White Mountains (New Hampshire)

The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...

 of New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is a tributary

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 of the Saco River

Saco River

The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000...

, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 in Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

.

The Sawyer River rises in the unincorporated township of Livermore, New Hampshire

Livermore, New Hampshire

Livermore is an unincorporated civil township in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. It was briefly inhabited as a logging town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The site of the logging town is about east of Lincoln on NH Route 112...

, on the eastern side of Hancock Notch, a pass in the Pemigewasset Wilderness

Pemigewasset Wilderness

The Pemigewasset Wilderness is a federally-designated Wilderness Area in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountains. It is a part of the White Mountain National Forest....

 between Mount Hancock

Mount Hancock (New Hampshire)

Mount Hancock is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire, named after John Hancock , one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....

 to the north and Mount Huntington to the south. The river flows east, paralleled by the Hancock Notch Trail, into a broad valley with Mount Carrigain

Mount Carrigain

Mount Carrigain is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after Phillip Carrigain, NH Secretary of State , and is on the south side of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, the source of the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River in the heart of the White Mountains,...

 to the north and the smaller summit known as Greens Cliff to the south.

The river turns northeast, with Carrigain Brook joining from the north and the outlet of Sawyer Pond joining from the south, and enters a deeper, narrower mountain valley as it descends to Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch is the steep and narrow gorge of the Saco River in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, located almost entirely within the town of Hart's Location...

. The river is paralleled in this lower section by the Livermore Road, a gravel access road. The Sawyer River enters the town of Hart's Location

Hart's Location, New Hampshire

Hart's Location is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Since 1948, the town has been one of the first places to declare its results for the New Hampshire Presidential primary and U.S. Presidential elections....

 and ends at the Saco River near its great bend to the east as it leaves Crawford Notch.

See also: Sawyer River Railroad