Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge
Thursday, 19-Oct-2023
Tags: NH / Hiking
This is not a trail guide. If you are planning to hike any of these trails refer to a real trail guide such as
(for the White Mountains) the
AMC White Mountain Guide.
Nestled beneath the mountains west (and a little north) of the Presidential Range, the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge near Jefferson, NH has natural communities of flowers, shrubs, and fauna among its ponds, bogs/wetlands, and spruce-fir forests. We took a fourth trip in four years in late October 2023 with Ginny and Marc. It was a cloudy day that turned a little sunny at times, we were treated to some beautiful fall colors.
You can read directions and hiking details on our
July 2020 blog post. As in previous trips, we walked the Presidential Rail Trail from the parking lot to Waumbek Junction and stopped at the the viewing area at Cherry Pond.
Pondicherry map.
View of Waumbek and Starr King from Big Cherry Pond.
At Larry's suggestion, we continued to the east on another section of the Presidential Rail Trail (we hadn't done this in any of our three prior visits). This section was very open with Moorhen Marsh on both sides. We saw beautiful American Larch trees in all different autumn shades, got more views of the northern part of the Presidential Range, and enjoyed looking at the marsh and a rather large beaver lodge.
American Larch trees.
Owl's Head and Mount Martha (Cherry Mountain).
Beaver lodge in Moorhen Marsh.
We returned to Waumbek Junction, walked along the Shore Path and then the loop to Little Cherry Pond.
View from the Shore Path of Big Cherry Pond, with Waumbek and Starr King on the left, the northern part of the Presidentials on the far right.
Closeup of the northern part of the Presidentials from the Shore Path.
Our total walk was a bit over 6 miles (but you can leave out various pieces to make it a shorter walk).
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