Hancock Campground

I just spent a cold rainy, snowy weekend camping here in January, and had a blast. The campground is plowed, sites have their access plowed with various widths depending on the site.  The sites are a little close together, and for winter there was a number of them being used.

The campground is close to Lincoln, NH so if you need supplies you can easily run into town for food and drink.  It's even closer to Loon Mtn and the Pemigewasset wilderness allowing for some amazing outdoor activities.

There are many dumpsters and bear boxes throughout the campground, the walk-in sites all have bear boxes.  Every site has a fire pit.  The campground is easily accessible by pavement.

Some pros and lots of cons. We stayed at a walk-in site by the river.

I never fully appreciated just how much camp hosts do. There was no ranger and no host. We arrived early on a Thursday, hopeful we could get a spot by the water. There are only two spots that are truly private in any way. They were both taken- fine. However, one of the groups had not registered and stayed until 4 or 5pm until everyone else had already set up for the day…then they left! So uncool. The site went unused because at that point, no one was going to move all their stuff. Maybe a camp host would’ve noticed that?

The sites were FILTHY with trash, dog poop and food waste. Pretty crazy considering this was supposed to be a bear area. There was also a bad smell wafting around, hmm…maybe because of the trash and dog poop? Stepping in dog poop and trying to clean off your boots is a significant bummer. The site we were stuck at also had ashes and chunks of wood all over the picnic table. Cleaning up this much in order to feel comfortable really sucked.

There was no running water at any of the pumps and the pit toilets were quite full.

There is a bridge nearby but the river covered any vehicle noise very well. It was also nice to be right off the highway and five minutes from town, yet it felt like a proper national forest experience.

There’s an upper loop with drive in sites. They didn’t seem very private and you could see the road. I wouldn’t stay up there.

Being by the river was beautiful. I would stay here again, but with more preparation for the campground’s limitations.

Hancock is a first-come, first-serve campground close to the visitor center as you enter the Whites.  It is also close to Loon Mountain Resort.  Camping at this campground provides you river access, or is relatively close to the Hwy, depending which site you choose.  One area is your standard campground - parking area, tent area, next site.  The other area, only for tents, is a communal parking area with walk-in campsites near the water.  

This campground had clean pit-toilets, no shower, spotty cell service, and both trash and recycling dumpsters, which were nice to see!