White Mountain National Forest

Sometimes if you take a little hike into the woods and look around, you find a sweet camping spot for the night. We decided to get one more camping night in before the snow really fell for the winter, so we threw everything in the car and went for it. There was a little snow, cool temps and the time changed, it was just perfect. The spot we chose had clearly been camped at before so we made sure to keep our impact to the same area. Because this is a backcountry, dispersed site, be sure to practice Leave No Trace practices.

Absolutely beautiful place to camp!

This was the furthest campsite down Town Hall Road (right before mountain pond trailhead) on the left

Space for one/maybe two tents

Pros:

-Nice little sites (most of them next to a stream) with additional space if you want to carry your stuff across the water.

-Super accessible being only a 21/2 hour drive from Boston and  very close to a lot of mountain town activities.

-Close to fishing (caught little brookies at our site and elsewhere nearby) and a bunch of hiking and mtb trails.

-Free!

Cons:

-Sites fill up fast

-Sites are all directly off the road.

-we had some car traffic coming through (possibly locals going hiking, fishing, etc)

- Really buggy (mid summer)

Went camping here in a large group on the normal camp sites, had a couple booked next to each other. Worked out great, and the park has plenty of trails to explore for any level of fitness/expertise.

Extremely beautiful in the fall, with the changing of the leaves. Lots of diners, restraunts, kayaking and hiking off and near the kancamagus highway.

Had to use freecamping.org to find a spot. We were naive thinking that National Forests have free dispersed camping, but the White Mountains charge at least $20 at their sites and forbid you to camp in any place we found. almost everywhere you look are no camping signs which is so unlike many other national forests. Anyway we eventually found some spots on a forest road (I think752) that would have been very nice and secluded if it weren't already so late and they weren't already so full

We stayed at 13 Waterfalls tent site. It was rustic, small, a little cramped, but met all of our back country needs. It did cost us $20 a night. There were 7 dogs who barked all night and the sites were a few feet away from each other. There was an outhouse. I dont think the outhouse was worth $20/night... we would have been better off camping in the back country.

I generally tent or sometimes use a shelter. It is a pretty remote area with some of the worst weather and highest speed winds in the world. Don’t go into the woods in flip-flops, shorts and a tee shirt late in the day with no flashlight. Be prepared and you can enjoy some of the best backpacking New England has to offer.