Exploring around Washington New Hampshire

August 11, 2020

My wife Sonya and I recently took a vacation with my family to a lakeside cabin in the small town of Washington New Hampshire. I wanted to make a short post about the area in general, if you enjoy the outdoors and spending time in nature this is a great area to put on your list.

There are a lot of lakes in this part of New Hampshire. It gave us the chance to unwind for a few days and just relax lakeside. All the lakes that I've seen in this area are beautiful. When we were out swimming my wife reported seeing some newts, or lake lizards as we started to call them as I think that name is a bit more fun. I grabbed my GoPro and snorkeling gear and spotted a ton of newts hanging out on the bottom. I wanted to catch one swimming through the water column as it returned to the bottom after getting some air. I had many failed attempts as these newts did not like me getting close enough to take their photos. It took me a few days, but I ended up with a photo I like.

Speaking of the GoPro I bought it specifically to take photos underwater and maybe a few quick videos. The image quality is no where near as good as with a larger camera, but I love it because I can grab it, hop right in the water and take photos like this without any fuss.

We also took the opportunity to do some hiking close by. Mount Sunapee was only a half hour drive from where we were staying so we hopped in the car with our dog Lola and made our way to the top. The hike up was really nice, not too difficult, but it was a few miles from the parking lot to the top. Once you're at the top you're rewarded with some really nice views.

You get a clear view of Lake Sunapee from the top as well. This looked like a cool lake and area and somewhere that my wife and I would like to go back to and explore more. Mount Sunapee is also a ski resort so if that's your thing this would be a good spot to head to in the winter.

There are countless dirt roads out in this part of New Hampshire. They're great for running as there aren't many cars and there is lots of elevation gain. I was lucky enough to spot this deer on the edge of one of those dirt roads.

There isn't much light pollution in this area either, if you're into star gazing or astrophotography this isn't a bad spot. We never got a completely cloud free night, but it was still pretty cool.