Fall in the New Hampshire Monadnock Region | Small Towns, Big Color

In my 45th autumn in the Monadnock Region since I first arrived here one October, I ask myself: Where would I take a friend who has never been to this beguiling place tucked into southwestern New Hampshire? And this is my answer. Here is where we’d go.   

Let’s begin on high, looking for hawks. We drive up a twisting 1.3-mile road at Miller State Park to reach the 2,290-foot summit of Pack Monadnock, the little sibling of the mountain for which this region is named. The park lies four miles east of downtown Peterborough, and we will soon stop there—but now, on a brisk fall morning, we look outward and upward.

The wind swirls, the air cools, and color sweeps across the landscape below us, visible through summit clearings. A sign points to an outcropping where on clear days you can see all the way to Boston, 75 miles distant. Another sign leads you to a view of Mount Monadnock itself. “The mountain that stands alone” looms to the west, in the town of Jaffrey; for two centuries, the stark bald summit of this signature peak has enticed hundreds of thousands of visitors to climb to the top.

Another day, we might join them on one of Monadnock’s many trails, but this morning we’re headed for the “hawk watch” observation deck. The thermals above Pack Monadnock make this a key point in a raptor migration highway, attracting crowds of hawks as they wing their way southward each autumn. A few years ago, watchers counted more than 5,000 on a single day. Naturalists from the Harris Center for Conservation Education in nearby Hancock often will be on hand to identify and talk about the soaring hawks, falcons, and eagles that keep our eyes skyward.

And this is how many people first come to know the Monadnock Region: from mountain summits with sweeping views that take in forests and lakes and distant villages. But those of us who live here know it for the intimacy of small towns with waterways too numerous to name. We know it for slow drives in fresh air. And for the country lanes where we walk and bike, the trails we hike, the ponds and rivers we paddle. But we also know it for sitting, for taking our ease by town greens and stone walls and at cafés, watching the business of a town unfold; and for driving endless curves, ever alert for the unexpected. We know it for the artists and musicians and chefs and artisan bakers who have settled here, giving travelers new reasons to visit out-of-the-way places that once were all but forgotten. 

So come meander with me. We will start from Peterborough, my hometown, and loop southward and then north and west before returning. The next day we will set off from Keene, the region’s only city, with some 23,000 residents. On each drive we’ll stop often, and as day passes easily into twilight, we will wonder where the time went.

The Peterborough Drive: A Day of Small-Town Delights

For me, Peterborough defines the Monadnock Region more than any other of its nearly 40 towns. Just before you reach the town from the east, the road opens up to a view of Mount Monadnock that is both an invitation and a promise. Here is the peace and beauty that for more than a century has inspired thousands of writers, painters, filmmakers, and other artists to create masterpieces in their cabins at MacDowell, one of the oldest artist residency programs in the country. You can feel that inspiration as you stroll among Peterborough’s shops, restaurants, and parks, accompanied by the music of two rivers coursing through town. To my mind, the most memorable kind of foliage display is a single tree erupting with color, and the tall maple in Depot Square will stop you cold. You will know the one I mean—right by the walking bridge next to Bowerbird & Friends, a gem of an antiques and decor shop.

We could pass hours exploring in town, but instead a sweet drive takes us through villages that connect one to the next like a ribbon through forest and farmland and old homes fronting country roads. We first come to the center of Temple, home to America’s oldest town band, and pause to visit the Old Burying Ground, where the early settlers lie in the most bucolic final resting place you could imagine. Next comes a slight detour to Ben’s Sugar Shack and the Maple Station Market, after which you’ll never think of maple syrup (and fresh maple doughnuts) the same way again.

The road climbs on the way to Hilltop Café in Wilton; at times it feels as if we are driving into the clouds hanging over the meadows. The risk of stopping at the café is that with a setting so lovely and peaceful, and food so satisfying, we’ll be reluctant to leave. But leave we must, so we follow the Souhegan River to the turn to visit Frye’s Measure Mill, a historic Wilton landmark where Shaker- and colonial-style wooden boxes have been made since 1858.

We pass through Lyndeborough and Greenfield before stopping in Francestown. If you can’t come here for foliage season, visit on Labor Day, when Francestown puts on a celebration unlike any I know, with parade floats and a rummage sale that fills a dozen horse stalls just off the village center. This is also where to find the Francestown Village Store, a place to which I’m always drawn. After operating nonstop for more than 200 years, it closed a few years ago, and townspeople lamented they had lost their community’s “beating heart.” Then a Wall Street Journal story about the store caught the eye of a West Coast man who was taken by its sentiment. He bought the building, paid for its renovation, and donated it to the local historical society. A newly arrived resident took over running the store, which today opens at 6 a.m. and lets you load up on everything from sandwiches to wine and local crafts until 9 p.m.

Next we head to Hancock, a village that many of us locals consider the most picture-perfect of all, with a Main Street lined with historic homes and a tidy green, a café that attracts foodies from miles around, a shop selling artisanal goat cheese, and a pond on the edge of downtown. We pull in at the nearby Harris Center, whose conservation efforts have shaped the region for decades, and whose trails to mountain vistas will end our day’s journey, just north of Peterborough, as it began: with wonder at nature’s autumn carnival.

The Keene Drive: A Sampler of Regional Superlatives

We begin in the college town of Keene by walking down New England’s widest Main Street, past enough eateries to keep us nourished for weeks, and pause at Hannah Grimes Marketplace to shop for New England–made crafts and goodies to send to our kids who have long since moved away. In autumn, another Main Street lure is the Keene Pumpkin Festival, a day celebrated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns.

A dozen miles north lies Walpole, a town where it is easy to summon superlatives. Is Alyson’s Orchard the prettiest in the country? We say yes. Are the L.A. Burdick Chocolate Shop and Café and the adjoining Restaurant at Burdick’s worthy of driving an hour (or more) to enjoy? And is the town green, lined with historic homes and churches, the best place in the world to walk off the Burdick’s feast you just enjoyed? Yes, and yes.

Next, we’re off to East Alstead. We find Old Settlers Road, a long dirt byway that reminds us why we live in the Monadnock Region, because it leads to Orchard Hill Breadworks. Set on a knoll looking out across acres of rolling fields, this is the place to discover some of the finest, freshest loaves in the land. At a shaded picnic table, we enjoy lunch while watching cyclists cruising past on a lane that takes them all the way to Hancock.

Then we wind our way through Marlow and Stoddard and Nelson—each village offering lakes and ponds and launching spots to entice any paddler—before stopping for an afternoon treat in Harrisville. Considered to be the best-preserved 19th-century industrial community in the country, this is one of the Monadnock Region’s undisputed historic gems. For decades, visitors have strolled beside Harrisville’s lovely pond, taking photos of the original brick mill buildings that are now home to entrepreneurs and artisans including Harrisville Designs, which continues the village’s textile heritage as it spins wool into heirloom-quality yarn. On a hilltop overlooking the village center is Harrisville General Store, which ranks among the best country stores anywhere with its fresh farm-to-table fare.

From there, it’s five minutes to Dublin and Yankee headquarters, where we take the same walk that’s a lunchtime favorite for me and my staff, a half-hour ramble that leads to Dublin Lake and a view of Monadnock rising behind it. Finally, we drive south through Jaffrey to Jaffrey Center, where the author Willa Cather wrote and lived, before starting back to Keene by way of country roads. A few miles later, we pull over and stop, spellbound. You will know exactly where. A stretch of farmland flows toward the base of Mount Monadnock, which seems planted just for you, just for autumn. And at that moment you may feel kinship with the hawks that are compelled to return every fall, generation after generation, to one of the most beautiful places you will ever know.

See More: Guide to New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region | Eat, Stay, Play