Pawtuckaway State Park
128 Mountain Rd Nottingham, NH 03290-4940 |
View Pawtuckaway 3/18/2012 9:26 AM in a larger map
Spent a great day at the park hiking! We saw two moose this morning at about 8:45am, as they just walked out of the woods in front of us and trotted down the trail ahead of us. They disappeared within minutes into a bog just over the rise of the next hill. Enjoying a great walk this day with my daughter and my wife. This was our route above but there are many trails from which to choose:
Trail Map Link: (PDF)
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| Geese enjoying a 78 degree pre-spring day |
Today's trip to the park was a 6.2 mile round trip but with all there was to see and do it was quite relaxing even though there were a few altitude challenges. Although the park does not allow pets in the main entrance of the park there were dogs abound on our trip today. At this entrance there are no postings prohibiting them.
We were one of the first to arrive in the lot off Deerfield Rd., on an unmarked dirt road known as Round Pond Rd (GPS
43.123433,-71.162673) . There are a few residential homes at the beginning of this road but the parking lot at the head of the trail is located about a quarter mile in (GPS
43.120395,-71.165285) just prior to the gate.
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| Dave on boulder over beaver dam |
The main parks access was not yet open, mid May opening according to postings, there was a massive showing on this weekend prior to Spring due to it being a fine 78 degree's at the height of the day. At the main entrance visitor center there were well over 60 cars in the lot full of visitors out walking and enjoying the great day.
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| Terrain Map, New England's own Volcano |
Pawtuckaway State Park is the second largest state park in Southeast New Hampshire with about 5,500 acres of permanently protected habitat. The “undeveloped” western section of the park is accessed by Reservation Road in Deerfield. This majority of the park consists of the remnants of an ancient volcano, forming North, Middle and South Mountains as well as Rocky Ridge. Numerous trails traverse these peaks affording grand views. It is a seemingly prehistoric area with a huge boulder field cascading down towards Round Pond. The Eastern boundary touches Pawtuckaway Lake where a campground offers a variety of outdoor pleasures.
The Pawtuckaway Mountains are a small, rocky, circular range that form the outline of an ancient volcanic ring dike dating from 130—110 million years ago (Cretaceous).The ring dike, first completely mapped in 1944, is a smaller and more accessible example of the same kind of geological process that formed the Ossipee Mountains to the north. The inner ring is roughly one mile in diameter, while the outer is measured at almost two miles.
The vary nature of this unique park, with near 1,000 foot peaks to the north tumbling down ragged boulder strewn ridges to the lake at 250 feet in elevation, lends itself to a wide diversity of wildlife found in the park. In fact a recent study of Vermont and New Hampshire showed that this section of the two states had the greatest diversity of vertebrate wildlife. That’s critters with backbones. The animals almost anyone can recognize! Because of the elevation change, and forested landscape, beavers abound in the park with a pond tucked into nearly every nook. And where there’s a beaver pond, wildlife overflows into the surrounding woodlands.
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| Balancing Boulder |
The immense size of the park and sun dappled South facing rock outcroppings have been favored by even the elusive bobcats. Deer, moose, bear, fisher and coyotes dodge one another amongst the ragged peaks as well. A drive into the campground will run you along Burnham Marsh where a great blue heron is likely to be seen gliding into a perch at the waters edge in search of a tasty fish or frog. A careful search of the roadside will show ample evidence of the turtles that laid eggs in the soft shoulder of the road. Only to have a raccoon or skunk feast on them leaving the white paper shells sprinkled at roadside.
While you may not be lucky enough to actually catch a glimpse of all the wild and secretive creatures, a little detective work will give you plenty of evidence that they abound in the park. The fact is, for the most part, they are real good at playing hide-and-seek.
When we returned to our car later in the afternoon our lot was full of hikers, in a lot that holds approximately 20 cars. When we got out to the end of the dirt road a quarter mile out at the main road there were about 20 more cars lined up along the side of the road. The park is large enough that we only ran into probably a dozen friendly folk enjoying a hike. It may have seemed crowded by the number of cars, but it was very quiet and peaceful the entire day! We give it a 5 out of 5 stars. ENJOY!
Click on any photo below and view these pictures in slideshow and larger size.
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| Crystal trying to wrap her arms around the size of this boulder |
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| Massive Beaver Dam |
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| Beaver Dam |
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| Beaver Dam |
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| Beaver successfully reduced flow to a trickle |
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| Beaver pond stream feeding lower Round Pond |
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| View from the top of the boulder shown with Crystal |
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| Large chimney between large boulder halves |
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| Crystal soaking up some Sunshine |
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| Sandy being the trail scout |
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| Snake quietly crossing the trail in front of us |
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| Pawtuckaway Fire Tower |
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| Time for lunch |
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| Pawtuckaway Fire Tower |
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| View of Pawtuckaway Lake |
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| Many Natural Shelters |
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| Balancing Act! |
