Bear Brook State Park

Bear Brook State Park is located in southern New Hampshire just over an hour drive from the Boston area and about 30 minutes north of Manchester. The proximity to Boston makes this an extremely popular campground, especially for those with young children. If you’re looking for a quiet camping getaway, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for somewhere where you can let your kids run wild…then this is the campground for you.

This is the largest developed state park in New Hampshire and has 101 campsites plus some cabins. The first two loops are the most tightly packed and offer the least privacy, these are sites 76-93, 1-11, and 35-45. Sites 12-30 are a little quieter because they’re away from the mayhem of the other loops. Sites 49-94 are somewhere in-between with certain sites like 55, 56, 94, 95 offering more privacy. None of the sites have electric/water hookups but there is a dump station with potable water and there are water outlets scattered around the camping loops (I can’t confirm if you can hook a hose up to these). Bathrooms are central located in each loop and have showers. There is a lot to do at this campground; hiking, boating, fishing, softball, archery, etc. It may be a bit crowded but the trade-off is that it’s very well developed.

There are over forty miles of hiking trails in the park and a lot of trailheads that start in the campground. Beaver Pond is nice to boat around in, boat rentals are available if you don’t have your own. Archery Pond is available specifically for fly fishing and across the road from that pond is another small pond that is just for children under twelve to fish in. If you’re interested in photography there are a lot of interesting landscapes around the campground for sunrise/sunset and astrophotography.