10,000 acres of New Hampshire wilderness sits 30 minutes from Manchester’s front door

It’s bigger than you’d ever guess

Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown covers more than 10,000 acres of forest, ponds, marshes, and wooded hills, making it the largest developed state park in New Hampshire.

It sits less than 30 minutes from both Manchester and Concord, which means you don’t need to drive halfway across the state to find serious wilderness. Most people have no idea it’s there.

The ones who do keep coming back.

FDR’s New Deal built this place from scratch

In 1935, the U.S. Forest Service bought more than 6,000 acres of worn-out farmland here. That same year, Civilian Conservation Corps workers arrived, set up camp, and got to work.

They planted trees, cut trails, built shelters, cabins, and campgrounds across the property. The park opened to the public in 1943.

That original CCC camp is one of the few relatively intact ones left in the country and the only surviving one in New Hampshire. It made the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Forty miles of trail through forest and bog

More than 40 miles of trails run through Bear Brook, and they go to places worth going. You can walk through marshes and bogs, climb to open granite summits, or follow a path along the edge of a pond.

Hikers, runners, mountain bikers, and horseback riders all share the same trail system. The Catamount Hill trail takes you up to a granite outcrop where you can see out over the treetops.

Families with kids and first-timers do fine here, and so do people who want something tougher.

Serious mountain bikers come here on purpose

Bear Brook has a reputation in southern New Hampshire as one of the best places to ride. The trail system runs from smooth, flowing singletrack to rocky, technical sections that will test you.

Purpose-built trails like Big Bear, Hemlock, and Bear Brook draw riders from well outside the area. The Southern New Hampshire chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association helps keep the trails in shape.

If you ride a Class 1 or Class 2 e-bike, you’re welcome on all of them.

Four ponds, and each one does something different

Catamount Pond has a swimming beach and canoe rentals for day visitors.

Head over to Beaver Pond and you’ll find another sandy beach at the campground, plus canoe and rowboat rentals. Archery Pond is reserved for fly fishing only and built to be universally accessible.

There’s also a separate pond set aside just for kids under 12 to fish.

Cast a line in the right spot and you might pull up chain pickerel, largemouth bass, or brook trout.

Two free archery ranges you won’t find at many parks

Bear Brook has two public archery ranges, and both are free to use. One is a 15-target range maintained by the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game.

The other is a four-target practice range built to be universally accessible. You bring your own equipment.

Near Catamount Pond, a 20-station fitness course gives families a place to move around between swims. Not many state parks anywhere in the country put all of this in one place without charging extra for it.

101 campsites on the shore of Beaver Pond

The Beaver Pond Campground runs along the water with 101 sites for tents and RVs. Each site comes with a picnic table, fire ring, and grate.

You’ve got coin-operated showers, flush toilets, a dump station, and a camp store on site.

The campground opens Memorial Day weekend and stays open through Columbus Day weekend, with sites available by reservation. Leashed dogs are welcome, so you don’t have to leave anyone behind.

Rustic cabins and a shelter built in 1937

At Bear Hill Pond, you can rent a furnished cabin that sleeps four or six. There’s no electricity, so you get a true off-grid stay right on the water.

If you want to go further back, hike half a mile to the Smith Pond shelter, an Adirondack-style lean-to that CCC workers built in 1937.

It sits on a wooded hilltop above Smith Pond with wooden bunks, a stone cook place, and an outhouse. The kind of place where you hear nothing but wind in the trees.

A CCC museum inside the original dining hall

The Richard Diehl Civilian Conservation Corps Museum sits inside the old camp dining hall, and it still has the feel of the place that was. An original coal stove anchors the room.

Photographs and tools from the camp’s working years line the walls.

The Old Allenstown Meeting House, maintained by the local historical society, is part of the same complex.

The museum typically opens Sundays during summer and by appointment, so call the park office before you make the trip to confirm the schedule.

Deer, bear, moose, and birds across the whole park

Ten thousand acres of forest and wetland hold a lot of wildlife. Deer move through regularly.

Black bears, moose, and wild turkeys are around too, along with snowshoe hares, otters, and beavers working the pond edges.

The bird list is long: tufted titmice, brown creepers, nuthatches, wrens, warblers, hawks, and raptors circling overhead. The ponds pull in waterfowl and migrating birds in season.

Bring binoculars and give yourself time to sit still, and the park will do the rest.

Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing when snow hits

Winter doesn’t shut the park down. Trails convert to cross-country ski and snowshoe routes, and they run completely separate from the snowmobile trails so you’re not sharing a lane with sleds.

The Little Bear Trail is a good starting point if you’re new to cross-country skiing. Snowmobilers connect into a network that links to the statewide trail system.

Some comfort stations and gates close in the off-season, but the land stays open, and the quiet that comes with a foot of snow on 10,000 acres is something different.

Dark skies, fall foliage and four-dollar admission

Come in October and the whole park goes color. Ten thousand acres of New England hardwoods turning at once is not something you see from a highway.

After dark, the skies rate a Class 3 on the Bortle scale, which means you can actually see the stars. Day use runs $4 for adults and $2 for kids ages 6 to 11.

Children under five get in free, and so do New Hampshire residents 65 and older. Book a parking reservation before you arrive, especially on weekends.

Visit Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire

To get to Bear Brook, head to 157 Deerfield Road in Allenstown, New Hampshire. From I-93, take Exit 9N onto Route 3/28 North and follow the signs to the park.

Coming from the coast, take I-95 to Route 4 West, then Route 28 South.

Day use fees are $4 for adults and $2 for children ages 6 to 11, with free entry for kids under five and New Hampshire residents 65 and older.

Check the official website for camping reservations, cabin availability, and seasonal hours before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• New Hampshire’s grandest old hotel sits at the foot of the Northeast’s tallest peak
• New Hampshire has a crack in the earth 90 feet deep — and you walk right through it
• New Hampshire history: The theater that helped turn 6,627 keys into bombs during World War II