From forests to outlet shops
New Hampshire is a sliver of a state, but it packs in many of nature’s gifts: the White Mountains, about 1,300 lakes and ponds, the forests which cover 80% of the state and, for still another lure to active travelers, a peekaboo bit of Atlantic coastline, as well.

The Granite State also is known for colorful fall foliage, quaint small towns, shopping — for antiques and for the new goods in brand-name outlets — as well as its quadrennial first-in-the-nation presidential primaries. The primaries may not bring tourists but they bring a lot of other people to the state.

About New Hampshire
This New England state is a popular destination with all personality types, with a special appeal for the venturers, who come to New Hampshire in large numbers and describe it enthusiastically. 

New England is well-represented as a popular leisure trip destination, but each state in the area possesses an individual character. In New Hampshire’s case, both residents and visitors are entertainingly iconoclastic, like the man from Massachusetts who was asked why he liked New Hampshire so much. He announced firmly, “Live Free or Die!” (the state’s motto). Very independent sorts, these New Englanders.

Next door Vermont has its Green Mountains while New Hampshire boasts the White Mountains. The numerous granite formations and quarries in the mountains give the state its Granite State nickname.

Venturer and centric tourists love this state largely because of this dramatic mountain scenery and the variety of activities offered. They can indulge their sense of adventure, their love of the outdoors and their desire for physical activity to whatever extent they wish.

And, it doesn’t hurt that the residents are friendly, but distinctively “New Hampshire” in their independence and points of view. Visitors call the state clean and pristine and a place with “no big-city problems.” All like the fact the state is relatively uncrowded.
For venturers, that means nice chunks of the state are available for the things they love, especially winter skiing in the White Mountains and the rugged hiking trails and campsites in the summer. Venturers also are intrigued by and appreciative of New Hampshire’s associations with America’s history since colonial times.  Millions of years ago glaciers moved through the area and created the wild, rugged passes and notches in the White Mountains that give New Hampshire some of its character.

The wild terrain apparently discourages authentics from visiting these parts of the state. They come to the more accessible areas and pursue less strenuous activities. They say the slower pace of life in small towns creates a comfortable, relaxed feeling that sends them home refreshed.

• Pull on your hiking boots and take advantage of some of the best hiking in the country, in the White Mountains. The local chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a series of back-country huts for hikers who pursue multiday trips. As to trail choices, the most daring hikers can try the Great Gulf Wilderness, accessible only on foot.

• Take a canoe or kayak excursion on the Androscoggin River for sightings of bears, eagles, moose and countless more birds. The river also is a favorite of anglers.

• Exploring the Lost River In Kinsman Notch will test your energy as it winds through glacier-formed caves and potholes. You see the sights using boardwalks, bridges and ladders, eventually reaching a remarkable rock formation called the Guillotine.

• Go skiing in New Hampshire. If it is an election year, schedule the trip for primary time if the activity surrounding visiting politicians interests you.

• For women only, sign on for learning programs with names like Chicks With Picks (for ice climbing) and Dropping In (for snowboarding), or take workshops that teach things like ice fishing, skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling.

• Give yourself a leaf-peeping tour from the seat of a bicycle, in a state mostly covered in forest.

• Go rock climbing. Sign on with Chauvin Guides International for instruction if you need it. In winter, make that ice climbing or ski mountaineering. Visit www.chauvinguides.com.

• Take classes at the Canterbury Shaker Village, a living-history museum at a 200-year-old Shaker site, now restored. You can join a workshop and learn to make typical Shaker products such as brooms or oval boxes or learn to spin your own yarn, among other things.

• Visit Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis just before dusk, said to be the best time to encounter the local ghost, maybe. Called Blood Cemetery by locals, the burying ground is believed to be haunted by one Abel Blood. But first, visit www.hollowhill.com/nh/nh.htm.

• Try hang gliding, paragliding or trikes for up-in-the-air ways to see the state. Take lessons, or opt for a tandem flight with an instructor. See www.newenglandaerosports.com and www.flymorningside.com.

• Stay at the historic Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods. In summer, its top outdoor activity is golf, in winter it is skiing, downhill and cross-country.
The 1944 International Monetary Conference, which created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, was held here, and your room will have a tiny plaque telling which delegate slept there. Daily property tours provide guests with more details on the hotel’s colorful history.

• Have a gourmet lunch at the cottage in Mason identified as the home of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother (because it was used to illustrate a 1948 edition of the story).

• Visit the little town of Freedom, which created its own conservation area, good for boating and fishing on Trout Pond, plus a range of other activities, depending on the season: cross-country skiing, hiking, horseback riding, hunting and mountain biking.

• Wrap up for a sleigh ride. Or, do the driving yourself on a snowmobile.

• Ride the cog railway on Mount Washington, a tourist attraction since its 1869 debut. The engine and passenger car are not coupled. The engine pushes the passenger car up, then the passenger coach coasts down against the engine.

• At the southern end of Franconia Notch, you will find the Flume, an 800-foot-long chasm with 70-to-90-foot-high granite walls and featuring a series of waterfalls, pools and rock formations. A bus takes visitors to the parking lot, then it’s a two-mile walk to the gorge to see the natural sights and two covered bridges.

• Sit down for an hour of dogsledding in Gorham. Or take the three-hour forest trip and, if you want, learn how to drive a team of Alaskan huskies.

• Take a wildlife tour in search of moose along the Androscoggin River and into the 13-Mile woods area.

• Attend the September Mud Bowl in North Conway, where the central event is the World Championships of Mud Football, with a double-elimination series of games played in knee-deep mud. Watch for the synchronized mud swimming.

• For soft-adventure, consider the inn-to-inn bicycling tours offered by Bike the Whites in North Conway.

• Visit Dartmouth College, the northernmost Ivy League campus, located in Hanover. Highlights of the campus are the Baker Memorial Library, Hood Museum of Art and the Hopkins Center for Creative and Performing Arts.

• America has a stonehenge of its own, and New Hampshire’s got it. Near North Salem, have a look at stone structures that comprise the oldest megalithic site in the U.S., possibly 4,000 years old. The site is an accurate astronomical calendar.

• Pursue lazy-days lakeside activities like swimming and miniature golf at one of the state’s hundreds of lakes and ponds.. At quieter places, you will hear the call of the wild loons, and one such is Squam Lake, where the movie “On Golden Pond” was filmed (although the story was set in another state).

• New Hampshire boasts more than a dozen official scenic byways. Drive the Kancamagus Highway through the Mount Washington Valley, or Route 1B which hugs the rocky Atlantic coast — or any of a number of others.

• Take a scenic tour by train to Conway, Bartlett and Crawford Notch on the Conway Scenic Railroad.  

• For the independence it confers, travel the state in a recreational vehicle. RV drivers report New Hampshire’s campgrounds are “great.”

• Visit the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, home to the Frost family from 1900 to 1909. The house tour includes a brief film plus a half-mile trail through the woods with 23 markers pointing out spots from Frost’s poems.

• Build a self-drive tour of the state’s best spots for viewing fall foliage.

• In summer, pick your own berries (for locations, see www.agriculture.nh.gov and search for “berries,” or go to www.pickyourown.org).

• Shop in this no-sales-tax state. There are more than 55 name-brand outlets in North Conway; so-called Antique Alley on Route 4 (www.nhantiquealley.com), and authentic country stores (General Store in Bath and Country Store in Moultonborough), among other choices.