Fox Hill Fun

Last weekend we headed out on a beautifully sunny day for a hike at Fox Hill Park in Franconia, NH.  The park is maintained by the Franconia Conservation Commission and can easily be found on Dow Ave off of Route 18.  We’ve hiked here before and blogged about it (Fox Hill), but we checked out a few other trails this time.

We weren’t sure what the conditions would be so we all brought snowshoes, but decided to not wear them because the two main trails that we could see were heavily tracked out.  Alden wanted to ride in the backpack carrier for the first part of the hike, which made us remember the last time we had come and did not bring any carrier which resulted in us carrying Alden.  As he gets bigger and heavier, it’s just easier for one of us to wear the backpack carrier (even if he doesn’t ride in it long) rather than deal with a tired kid that doesn’t want to walk.

We took the Gale River Trail first and enjoyed the wintry floodplain forest.  There are some nice boulders further along the trail close to where the Boundary Trail and the Campground Trail meet.  At this point we decided to head back to one of the other trails that leads up Fox Hill.  We took the Vernal Pool Trail to the Peepers Trail (both short cutoff trails that are not on the kiosk map) and then what we hoped was the Scenic Trail up toward the top of Fox Hill.

Unlucky for us, the trail was not tracked out except for one snowshoe track and an accompanying dog, but we managed fine with just a few slips up the hill.  The orange blazes confirmed that we were on the right trail.  As we reached the top, we could see views of Cannon Mountain and stopped to rest at Ian Van Houten’s rock.

We convinced Alden to walk the rest of the way and we quickly came to the junction of the Boundary Trail, or Bill Hoyt Memorial Trail (sign near the parking lot calls it this).  Alden had a blast running down the trail and sliding in the snow.

This popular place is great for a quick hike, although we were surprised that we didn’t run into anyone on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  The trail maps on the kiosk need updating with what’s actually on the ground, but the place is small enough that it isn’t a huge safety concern.