Ridge Trail: If you are interested in traveling through a number of natural features, then this trail is for you! As the name indicates, this trail follows high ground wherever possible. It forms two loops - one on the east and one on the west side of Center Road - which encircle the entire forest. You may start from Fox HQ or at other points where connecting trails reach town roads.
Mud Pond Trail: The beautiful Mud Pond Trail leads to a Fox Forest gem, a 50-acre floating bog. Beginning where the Ridge Trail reaches the Virgin Forest - an old growth remnant over 200 years old - it follows along a beaver pond and continues past a 2006 timber sale, to the Simm Boardwalk and the edge of Mud Pond Bog. An interpretive guide to Mud Pond Bog is available at trailhead kiosks.
Swamp Trail: The Swamp Trail (reached via the Ridge Trail or the White Cross Trail) accesses a Black Gum - Red Maple Basin Swamp and takes you back through time. The basin was formed about 12,500 years ago by a continental glacier and some of the oldest trees in New Hampshire grow in this wetland! Black gum is mostly found in the southern United States. The trees have blocky, deeply furrowed bark ridges and stag-headed upper trunks. A guide developed by the Natural Heritage Bureau is available at the Fox HQ kiosk.
Valley Road: Looking for a shorter hike? Valley Road follows the north side of Gerry Brook as it flows through a stately stand of mature eastern hemlock called the Hemlock Ravine. Continue north to Concord End Road near the historic Gerry Cemetery or make a shorter loop back to HQ via the Ridge Trail.
Visit NH Division of Forests & Lands online for more information, or call the park directly at (603) 464-3453.
The Fox HQ (main office), as well as the Henry I. Baldwin Environmental Center, is located at 309 Center Road in Hillsboro, NH. Only the parking at Fox HQ, and Bog-4-Corners (the east end of Gould Pond Road) are maintained in the winter.
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