Good starter hikes to rocky summits with spectacular views.

Here is a flyer from the NFS that has trail details, history for Mount Chocorua. The Champney Brook Trail is a good choice. Mt. Chocorua is really a great hike, the views are spectacular. We climbed in late spring and Mt. Washington in the distance was still snow covered. I’d advise against the Bolles trail coming back. It looks like a decent loop trail, but it is long, uninspiring, and wearing on your body. Not good for young kids. Do get there early and if possible, go when water is still running. The falls on the Champney Brook are beautiful.

nfs-chocorua.pdf

Mount Monadnock in southern NH is also a great hike for everyone.  It has been said that Mt. Monadnock is the second most hiked mountain in the world after Mt. Fuji in Japan.  The top half of the mountain is characterized by big slabs and boulders of rock that are fun to climb over. Camp at Monadnock State Park or the nearby BSA Camp Wanocksett in Jaffrey, NH (google to find more info). I highly recommend this climb. Get there early and be prepared to sweat.The word “monadnock” originally comes from the Abnacki Indian language meaning “mountain that stands alone.” Wikipedia has good info on this mountain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Monadnock

The Transcendentalists

  Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau visited the Mt. Monadnock and wrote fondly of it. Emerson was a frequent visitor, and made the mountain the subject of “Monadnoc”, one of his most famous poems. Thoreau visited the mountain four times between 1844 and 1860 and spent a great deal of time carefully observing and cataloging natural phenomenon. He is regarded as having written one of the first serious naturalist inventories of the mountain. A bog near the summit of Mount Monadnock and a rocky lookout off the Cliff Walk trail are named after him; another lookout is named after Emerson. Credit:Wikipedia.