Pawtuckaway State Park
Nottingham, NH
Park Website
Trail Map
Horseback riding is allowed at Pawtuckway State Park. Some trails are closed to horses, you should call the park to verify which trails are off limits. You are not allowed to park at the main entrance of the park.
To get to the area where horse trailers are allowed to park you must get to Reservation Road. This is a paved road that turns to dirt and does get fairly narrow. Once on this road when you come to the fork, you go to the right towards the "fire tower". At this point you park alongside the road where ever you can find a spot. There is one pull out that can comfortably fit two trucks with bumper pull two horse trailers. Bigger rigs would probably have trouble making the swing into this little pull out. There are other parking areas along the roads. If you are unfamiliar with the area I would suggest going to the location before hand in a smaller vehicle to check out the parking to see what you are comfortable with.
This is a nice park to ride in. The terrain varies greatly from flat to hilly. The trails are mainly wooded. There are gravel roads that you can ride along or you can follow the snow mobile trails in the woods. There is traffic along the gravel roads but if you use proper care it is usually very safe, people are good about slowing down. The boulder trail seems to be the one that attracts the most people on foot.
I would not suggest riding the trail to the fire tower unless you are looking for a toe curling trail up some very steep hills that you will have to come back down with your horse. I have done it and we have ridden as far as we could go with the horses and dismounted and tied them while my friend continued on foot to see the fire tower, but I would NOT suggest this for the faint of heart. It requires calm trust worthy trail mounts to navigate the downhill.
We have gotten in a few hours of trail riding here. We explore a lot and take different trails, several you will have to back track on. There is a neat old cemetary off of the road that we have stopped and tied the horses to trees while we explored the grave stones.
Deer Flies can be annoying when in season as there is a lot of water in the park. Fly masks for horses and humans suggested.
Camping is available for people but not horses. See their website for further information.
As soon as I am able to get out there in the spring I will take some photo's of the park and post them here.
This information was provided by Jennifer Sacchetti 1/22/2010
