What there is to do around Washington.
Washington is a hill town of a few hundred people between Keene and Lake Sunapee. Here’s what our guests actually end up doing — written by people who live here, not copied off a tourism board.
The short version: water and woods within ten minutes, ski hills within forty, and two proper towns within half an hour when you want a restaurant and a hardware store.
A note on the town itself. Washington was the first town in the country incorporated under George Washington’s name, in December 1776. The common at the centre of town — meetinghouse, town hall and church lined up in a row — is one of the most photographed village greens in New Hampshire. It’s five minutes from the house and worth the detour, especially in October.
Lakes, ponds and trails
Most of this is close enough that you won’t need to plan your day around it.
Highland Lake
The town beach at Camp Morgan is where everyone swims. Sandy entry, shallow for a long way out, picnic tables and a playground. It’s a town facility, so check the current season’s access rules — we’ll tell you what applies when you book. Good for a swim before dinner, not a place you need to spend the whole day.
Pillsbury State Park
Five thousand acres of more or less nothing, in the best possible way. A string of quiet ponds — May, Butterfield, North — that you can paddle without seeing another boat, and a network of trails that connect into the Greenway. There are remote campsites here too, several of them only reachable by canoe. Moose are genuinely common at dawn on the pond edges.
Ashuelot Pond & Island Pond
Two undeveloped ponds where the Ashuelot River starts. Bring the kayaks or borrow ours. Island Pond straddles the Washington–Stoddard line and is ringed by conservation land, so the shoreline looks the same as it did a century ago. Fishing is decent; a New Hampshire licence is required and you can buy one online.
The Monadnock–Sunapee Greenway
A fifty-mile ridge trail running from Mount Monadnock up to Mount Sunapee, and it passes right through this stretch of hills. You don’t need to walk the whole thing — there are day sections you can do in three or four hours and be back for lunch. The climb up Lovewell Mountain is the obvious one from here.
Mount Monadnock
One of the most climbed mountains in the world, and worth the traffic. Around three to four hours round trip on the White Dot trail, steep near the top, and a summit view that takes in most of southern New Hampshire. Go early on a weekend or go on a weekday; the parking lot fills by nine.
Snow, and what to do with it
Washington sits high, so it holds snow when the coast has none.
Mount Sunapee
The nearest full-size mountain — a proper vertical, a good spread of terrain, and a state-park beach on the lake below it in summer. Buy lift tickets ahead online; walk-up pricing is punishing.
Pats Peak
Henniker’s family hill. Smaller than Sunapee and much friendlier to beginners and to your wallet. Night skiing several evenings a week, which is a good use of a short winter afternoon.
Crotched Mountain
Bennington, and the one to pick if you want to ski late into the evening — their night operation runs long. Good intermediate cruising.
From the back door
Snowshoes are in the mudroom. There are old logging roads behind the house and the local club keeps groomed snowmobile trails through these hills — you’ll hear them on weekends and not much otherwise.
Groceries & supplies
There is no supermarket in Washington. Plan on one proper shop when you arrive — most people stop on the way in rather than driving back out.
- Hillsborough (~20 min) is the nearest full supermarket, plus a pharmacy, hardware store and petrol.
- Newport and Keene (~35 min) have everything else, including a decent wine selection.
- There’s a general store in town for milk, coffee, bait and the things you forgot. Hours are short — check before you rely on it.
- In summer and autumn, farm stands along Route 31 sell corn, eggs and pies on the honour system. Bring cash.
Where to have dinner
Washington itself doesn’t have a restaurant. What it does have is a very good kitchen at the house — most guests cook most nights, which is half the point of renting a house.
When you want to go out, Henniker and Hillsborough have the closest pub food, and Keene has the real restaurants — a walkable Main Street with a dozen good options and a brewery or two. Sunapee Harbour is the pretty option in summer: eat on the water, walk the docks afterwards.
We keep a current list of what’s open, what’s closed and what’s worth the drive in the welcome book on the kitchen table. Places change hands out here; a printed list beats a website every time.
Towns worth the drive
Hillsborough
Your practical town, but there’s more here than errands. The Franklin Pierce Homestead — boyhood home of the only president New Hampshire has produced — is open seasonally. Fox State Forest has easy walking trails. And the town’s stone arch bridges, built without mortar in the 1800s and still carrying traffic, are genuinely remarkable if you like that sort of thing.
Keene
The biggest town in this corner of the state, with a Main Street wide enough to turn an ox team around in. Restaurants, a good bookshop, a cinema, a Saturday farmers market in season, and a college that keeps the place lively. This is where to go on a rainy day.
Lake Sunapee & Sunapee Harbour
A proper big lake with boat launches, a state beach below the ski mountain, and a harbour village that’s pleasant to potter around in summer. There are cruise boats if you’d rather someone else drove.
Concord
The state capital — gold dome, a planetarium the kids will like, and the nearest large-scale shopping. Also your route to the interstate if you’re heading south.
On leaf season
Colour in these hills usually turns from the last week of September and peaks somewhere in the first two weeks of October, though it moves around by a week or so each year depending on the summer. This is our busiest fortnight by a wide margin, and people book it a year ahead.
If you want foliage without the crowds, aim for the third week of October. The colour is past its peak but the hillsides are still going, the roads are empty, and the rate drops.
Come see it for yourself.
Send us your dates and we’ll tell you honestly whether the week you’re thinking of is the right one.