The Peabody River rises in Pinkham Notch, on the eastern slopes of Mount Washington. The river flows northeast to the Androscoggin River in Gorham, New Hampshire, collecting tributaries from the Presidential Range to the west and the Carter-Moriah Range to the east. Its most significant tributary is the West Branch of the Peabody River, emerging from Great Gulf, a deep and long glacial cirque surrounded by the peaks of the Presidential Range.