The statute puts a registered truck inside the off-road category
Read RSA 215-A:1, VI before anything else in New Hampshire. The chapter defines an off highway recreational vehicle as any mechanically propelled vehicle used for pleasure or recreation on tyres, tracks or a cushion of air, and then writes registered road vehicles into it whenever they are used for recreation off the highway, while writing them back out again when they are simply being driven somewhere. That is the state drawing its line by what you are doing rather than by how wide the machine is.
The registration paragraph then takes the sting out of it. RSA 215-A:21, V requires registration of every OHRV “except conventional motor vehicles registered for highway use”, so a plated, insured truck needs no sticker and no decal. Putting the two paragraphs together is our own reading rather than a quotation from the state, and it produces the working answer: no second registration, but the conduct rules of the chapter are about you.
Those conduct rules are worth knowing. RSA 215-A:21, I says registration “does not constitute a license to operate said vehicle on private land”, and that anyone operating on another person’s land must stop, identify themselves on request and leave if asked. RSA 215-A:34 lets an owner post ground against OHRVs, and adds that a failure to post grants nobody any licence to enter. In a state this private, that is the whole permission system in two sentences.
An actual machine is a different matter. The Fish and Game Department registers an ATV, UTV or other OHRV at 89 dollars for a resident and 108 for a non-resident, falling to 59 and 78 with proof of membership of a New Hampshire club affiliated to the state off highway vehicle association. Trail bikes are 80 and 99, or 50 and 69. Registrations run from 1 May to 30 April. A non-resident can buy a ten-day temporary registration for 42 dollars, May through October, wheeled vehicles only.
Source 25
The forest runs on quarter miles and forest orders
The White Mountain National Forest is the federal land in New Hampshire, and it does not publish a general permission to camp anywhere. It publishes a set of distances. Camping and wood or charcoal fires are prohibited within 200 feet of certain trails and water bodies, within a quarter mile of backcountry facilities such as shelters, huts and trailheads, within a quarter mile of certain roads, and in the alpine zone where the trees stand eight feet or less, except on two feet of snow.
Which roads and which trails is the job of the Forest Protection Area maps, which the forest describes as covering “potentially overused or fragile areas of the Forest where use restrictions are applied”, with limits on camping, on wood and charcoal fires and on party size. Three of those maps cover the Androscoggin and Saco districts, the West Pemi district, and the Pemi and Saco districts. Five motor vehicle use maps cover Kilkenny, Maine, Presidential, Sandwich and the Westside of the forest, all released on 8 July 2025.
Where roadside camping is allowed outside those areas, the forest also names four roads where it has built the sites instead: Gale River Loop with 13, Old Cherry Mountain with 9, Haystack with 11 and Town Hall with 24, 57 in all. Tripoli Road runs a signed roadside camping area of its own from mid-May to October at 25 dollars per vehicle per night, reached from exit 31 off Interstate 93 and two miles east to the registration trailer, and the forest says plainly that it “is not a good choice for campers seeking a tranquil out of the way spot”.
Two standing rules close the gaps. Camping at one campsite is limited to 14 nights. And occupying a vehicle overnight is prohibited in all trailhead and day-use parking lots, which rules out the fallback most travellers reach for when a campground is full. Book instead: every reservation on this forest has to be made at least four days in advance.
Source 6
The notches, and who plows which one
New Hampshire’s road geography is a series of gaps through the same range, and the difference between them is who maintains them. The Forest Service states the principle on its own roads table: it “only maintains and operates National Forest System roads”, and many roads on or near the forest belong to other local, state or federal agencies. So a numbered forest road here may be kept up by the state transport department or by a town.
The gravel through-routes carry the interesting status lines. Jefferson Notch Road, Dolly Copp Road (Forest Road 71), Little Larry Road (Forest Road 8), Pattie Mill Brook Road (Forest Road 7) and Route 113 through Evans Notch are all listed as not maintained for winter travel and part of the snowmobile trail system, so the snow season converts them rather than simply closing them. Sandwich Notch Road is maintained by the town of Sandwich and is not maintained for winter travel. Mount Clinton Road (Forest Road 121) is maintained by the state transport department and is not maintained for winter either. Ravine Lodge Road (Forest Road 754) is the odd one out: the Dartmouth Outing Club maintains it in winter, with parking halfway up.
The paved notches are state ground and stay open. Interstate 93 threads Franconia Notch for eight miles between the Kinsman and Franconia ranges as the Franconia Notch Parkway, from the Flume Gorge at the south end to Echo Lake at the north. US 302 runs through Crawford Notch State Park’s 5,775 acres. Route 26 crosses Dixville Notch, where the state park is 127 acres of gorge and waterfall with roadside parking.
Two federal designations cover the tour. The Kancamagus Scenic Byway is a National Scenic Byway, and the White Mountain Trail is a 100-mile loop through three notches that the Federal Highway Administration allows two and a half hours for. The state transport department counts over 1,000 miles of designated scenic and cultural byways in New Hampshire and three National Scenic Byways: the White Mountains Trail, the Kancamagus Highway and the Connecticut River Byway.
Source 12
Jericho Mountain is the full-size trail most of New England lacks
Jericho Mountain State Park near Berlin is the one place in this guide where a state agency signs a trail for a full-size vehicle. Alongside the ATV, UTV, trail bike and snowmobile network it runs a Jeep and truck trail that asks for “a winch, modified tires and other modifications”, priced at 20 dollars per vehicle for up to two occupants and 4 dollars for each further person. Day use is 4 dollars for an adult. The campground holds 20 sites made up of 5 cabins, 4 tent sites, 2 Adirondack shelters and 9 RV sites.
The park is the hub of something larger. It states 75 miles of OHRV trail within the park and a connection to the 1,000 miles of trail in Coos County, which the Division of Parks and Recreation calls Ride the Wilds and describes as the largest interconnected trail network in the northeast. Two more northern state parks plug straight into it: Lake Francis at Pittsburg, with 45 sites including 9 with water and 20 amp electric and 9 set aside for ATV camping, and Coleman at Stewartstown, twelve miles east of Colebrook on Diamond Pond Road, with 29 sites including ATV camping.
Getting there legally is unusual too. RSA 215-A:10, IV(c) names six stretches of state highway designated for OHRV use, among them Jericho Lake Road in Berlin from Route 110 to the park itself, Back Lake Road in Pittsburg, Route 3 in Pittsburg between Back Lake Road and Route 145, Route 145 in Pittsburg and Clarksville, Diamond Pond Road in Stewartstown and the reduced speed section of Route 3 in North Stratford as needed to reach services. The same paragraph bars OHRV use from any interstate, toll or divided highway.
Source 39
The north country is somebody’s working forest
Above the notches the pattern changes. Nash Stream Forest in Columbia, Stark, Stratford and the unincorporated place of Odell is just under 40,000 acres, the largest state reservation in New Hampshire, and its main gate opens for the summer season in late May. The division tells visitors to give way to gravel and concrete trucks, and says road conditions are subject to change through the season. It is the same bargain that governs most of northern New England: the road exists because somebody hauls wood on it.
The Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Working Forest is 146,000 acres of privately owned commercial forestry land held under an easement, run as a partnership between the state and the Connecticut Lakes Realty Trust, with gates and active logging. The legislature wrote one date about it directly into statute. RSA 215-A:3-c says that “Notwithstanding any conservation easement provisions or other contracts, laws, or rules to the contrary, all existing OHRV trails on the Connecticut Lakes headwaters working forest property shall remain open through the second Monday in October”.
Water runs the far northeast. Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge conserves more than 37,000 acres under Fish and Wildlife Service management across New Hampshire and Maine, with each state having acquired over 1,000 acres nearby, which together protect nearly all the lake shoreline and stretches of the Androscoggin, Magalloway, Dead Cambridge and Rapid rivers. Umbagog Lake State Park at Errol runs 27 developed sites with hookups and 2 cabins at base camp, plus 33 remote campsites and 4 remote cabins reached only by boat.
The drive in is Route 16 up the Androscoggin. Mollidgewock State Park sits on the river inside the Thirteen Mile Woods Scenic Area, about 28 miles north of Berlin and three south of Errol, with 44 tent sites of which 42 are at base camp and 2 are remote, at 29 dollars a night with no hookups.
Source 36
A permit for every fire, and a canister for the Pemi
New Hampshire has required fire permits since 1911, and the requirement is broad: every person who kindles any fire or burns any material, except when the ground is covered with snow, must obtain a written fire permit from the forest fire warden in the town or city where the fire will be kindled. Ground covered with snow has its own definition, snow or frozen precipitation within a 100 foot radius of the fire edge, enough to stop woodland fuels burning until the fire is out.
The categories are sized in inches. A Category I fire is a camp or cooking fire no greater than 32 inches across in a ring of fire resistive material or a portable fireplace, at least 25 feet from structures, and with a permit it may be lit at any hour, raining or not. A Category II fire is up to 48 inches across and at least 50 feet from structures, and may only be lit between 5pm and 9am unless it is actually raining. Category III is anything larger or not in a ring, on the same hours, permitted for up to seven days. Only untreated wood, untreated pallets, campfire wood, brush or charcoal may be burned, none of it thicker than five inches. A permittee is a landowner or somebody holding the landowner’s written permission.
Bears have produced a separate order. Forest order R9-22-26-03 requires all food, food containers, scented items such as soap, lip balm and toothpaste, and refuse to be kept in a cylindrical, hard-sided, non-pliable canister certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee throughout the Pemigewasset Wilderness from 1 May 2026, with the only exception the bear-resistant boxes at the Thirteen Falls Tent Site. The forest also runs a standing food storage order, R9-22-24-02, across the rest of its ground.
Wilderness adds its own arithmetic. The forest holds six designated areas: Sandwich Range at 35,800 acres, Pemigewasset at 45,000, Presidential Range-Dry River at 29,000, Great Gulf at 5,552, Wild River at 23,700 and Caribou-Speckled Mountain at 14,000. Hiking and camping group size is capped at ten people. No permit is needed to visit or backpack unless you are guiding for hire.
Source 37
Passes and routes
-
Kancamagus Scenic Byway, Route 112Paved
2,869 ft 26.5 (Federal Highway Administration); the Forest Service says 34
Lincoln to Conway
A National Scenic Byway across the White Mountain National Forest, traversing the flank of Mount Kancamagus with scenic areas and overlooks, the Russell Colbath Historic Site and the Forest Discovery Trail. The Federal Highway Administration allows an hour for it and states there are no fees to drive it, though unattended cars in the national forest need a recreation pass. Forest Service campgrounds sit along it from Lincoln eastward, and its high point is the gap the USGS records as Kancamagus Pass. 23
-
White Mountain TrailPaved
100
A loop through three notches
A National Scenic Byway loop that the Federal Highway Administration describes as New England’s most rugged mountain scenery, passing through three historic mountain passes with views of Mount Washington, waterfalls, wildlife and access to the Appalachian Trail. Allow two and a half hours to drive it. The New Hampshire transport department lists it as one of the state’s three National Scenic Byways alongside the Kancamagus Highway and the Connecticut River Byway, and was accepted for national designation in 1998. 24
-
Mount Washington Auto Road
6,288 ft 7.6
A private toll road from Route 16 in Pinkham Notch to the summit, and the limits on it are the road company’s rather than the state’s. It gains over 4,000 feet in 7.6 miles at an average grade of 12 percent, with extended sections at 18 and the last 50 yards at 22, and the company allows about 30 minutes each way. It calls itself a steep, narrow mountain road without guardrails, tells drivers to pump the brakes rather than ride them on the way down, and bars pickups with permanent additions wider than the cab. Mount Washington State Park at the top is 58.8 acres; the Sherman Adams building there was designed to take winds over 200 miles per hour. You may not camp overnight in the state park or leave a vehicle on the summit overnight. 54
- Vehicle
- Wheelbase under 176 inches and width under 93 inches including mirrors. No trailers, RVs, motorhomes or dual wheeled vehicles
- Season
- The state park at the summit ran 13 June to 12 October in 2026, with limited service to 18 October
-
Jefferson Notch Road
3,005 ft
A gravel forest road over the gap between the Presidential and Dartmouth ranges, listed on the forest’s own roads table without a forest road number. The Forest Service publishes no length, surface class or summit elevation for it, so none is stated here; the figure on the elevation chart is our own reading of the elevation surface at the map point the USGS holds for the notch. In winter it becomes part of the snowmobile system rather than a plowed road. 12
- Season
- Not maintained for winter travel; part of the snowmobile trail system
-
Bear Notch Road, Forest Road 26
1,771 ft
Bartlett to the Kancamagus Highway
A numbered National Forest System road that the state transport department maintains, linking Route 302 at Bartlett down to the Kancamagus. It is the shortcut that turns the byway into a loop. The Forest Service publishes its number and who maintains it but no length or season, so neither is claimed here. 12
-
Tripoli Road, Forest Road 30
Interstate 93 exit 31 to Waterville Valley
The forest’s busiest roadside camping corridor, reached from exit 31 off Interstate 93 and two miles east to the registration trailer. Sites are 25 dollars per vehicle per night with portable toilets and no potable water, and the forest warns that this is not a good choice for anyone after a quiet spot. Parking on Tripoli Road carries its own forest supervisor’s order, R9-22-19-23. 16
- Season
- The roadside camping area runs mid-May to October
-
Sandwich Notch Road
1,380 ft
A narrow gravel road over the notch between Campton and Sandwich that appears on the forest’s roads table with the note that the town of Sandwich maintains it, not the Forest Service. That is the point worth carrying: a road on the national forest map here may belong to a town, and the standard it is kept to is the town’s. No length, grade or vehicle class is published, so none is stated. 12
- Season
- Not maintained for winter travel
-
Bog Dam Loop, Forest Road 15
The Kilkenny country north of Route 110
The gravel loop through the Kilkenny district, the quietest corner of the forest, listed on the roads table as the Kilkenny Loop. The nearest developed site is South Pond Recreation Area off Route 110 in Stark, which the Androscoggin district runs from mid-June to mid-October at 9 dollars per passenger vehicle for day use, with a bathhouse, a sand beach and a carry-in launch. The Forest Service publishes no length or season for the loop itself. 22
-
Route 113 through Evans Notch
Gilead, Maine to Fryeburg, Maine along the state line
The eastern edge of the forest, which runs in and out of Maine. Wild River Campground lies five miles down the gravel Wild River Road, Forest Road 12, off Route 113 and three miles south of Route 2 in Gilead, and the forest calls it a remote campground and states that Route 113 is gated closed during the winter months. The roads table lists the campground road as storm damaged, so read the standing table before committing to that side of the forest. 21
- Season
- Gated closed during the winter months; part of the snowmobile trail system
-
Dolly Copp Road, Forest Road 71
Route 16 at Pinkham to Route 2 at Randolph
Also signed as Pinkham B Road, the gravel cut west of Route 16 below the Presidentials. Dolly Copp Campground is half a mile in from Route 16, six miles south of Gorham, open mid-May to mid-October at 30 dollars a night with electric hookups at 14 dollars more and day use at 6 dollars a vehicle. The forest publishes no length or grade for the road itself. 20
- Season
- Not maintained for winter travel; part of the snowmobile trail system
-
Passaconaway Road, Forest Road 60
The Kancamagus Highway to West Side Road at Conway
The Albany side road off Route 112, maintained by the town of Albany rather than by the Forest Service. It carries Covered Bridge Campground, 49 sites about a mile from the highway, and the entrance bridge has a seven foot nine inch height restriction. Larger rigs are routed round it by Passaconaway Road from West Side Road in Conway, which is the practical reason to know your loaded height before you turn off the byway. 19
-
Route 26 east to Umbagog LakePaved
Errol to the Maine line
The run out to the lake that gives the northeast corner its shape. Umbagog Lake State Park at Errol holds 27 developed sites with electric and water plus 2 cabins at base camp, and 33 remote campsites and 4 remote cabins in isolated locations reached only by boat. The park sells fuel and runs a boat launch, and transport out to the remote sites can be arranged. Leashed pets are allowed in the base campground but not at the remote sites in the refuge. 44
-
Diamond Pond Road, Stewartstown
Colebrook east to Coleman State Park
Twelve miles east of Colebrook into roughly 2,000 acres of state park with 29 campsites, some of them set aside for ATV camping with direct trail access. The park states that its trails connect with the 1,000 miles of OHRV and snowmobile trail in Coos County. RSA 215-A:10 designates part of Diamond Pond Road itself for OHRV use, from the town-owned section south to Charles Heath Road. 46
-
Connecticut Lakes Headwaters roads
Pittsburg, Clarksville and Stewartstown
A gravel network across 146,000 acres of privately owned commercial forestry land, held under a conservation easement and run as a partnership between the state and the Connecticut Lakes Realty Trust. It is a working forest with active logging, and the state runs a gate status document and a field office number for road and gate conditions rather than a published road list. OHRV riding is permitted and the trails are relocated from time to time. Treat it as somebody’s timber operation that you have been let into. 49
- Season
- RSA 215-A:3-c keeps the existing OHRV trails open through the second Monday in October
-
Route 3 north of PittsburgPaved
Pittsburg to the Canadian border
The road up past the Connecticut Lakes to the Canadian border. Deer Mountain Campground sits in Connecticut Lakes State Forest about five miles short of the border, with 25 primitive sites at 29 dollars a night and no hookups, beside the stretch the state calls Moose Alley. Route 3 here is also one of the six state highway sections RSA 215-A:10 designates for OHRV use, between Back Lake Road and Route 145. 48
-
Pisgah State Park’s gated roads
Winchester, Chesterfield and Hinsdale
The southwest corner, and the largest property in the New Hampshire state park system: over 13,300 acres, 21 square miles of rough forested terrain with seven ponds, four highland ridges and 55 miles of trail reached from six trailheads. It is open year round at no charge, it allows OHRV and snowmobile use, and park staff monitor the impact of motorised and bicycle use seasonally. The gates are shut through mud season, which is the period no calendar publishes. 50
- Season
- Gates are closed through mud season
-
Franconia Notch Parkway, Interstate 93Paved
1,826 ft 8
The Flume Gorge to Echo Lake
Eight miles of interstate squeezed between the Kinsman and Franconia ranges and run as a state park rather than a plain highway, with a separate bike path the whole length of the notch. Lafayette Place campground beside it usually runs through Columbus Day while the Cannon RV Park stays open year round on reduced services from October to May. The park states it is always open for recreation unless closed or restricted by posting, and that it is typically unstaffed off season. 40
-
US 302 through Crawford NotchPaved
Bartlett to Twin Mountain
The through-route of Crawford Notch State Park, 5,775 acres in Harts Location giving on to hiking trails, waterfalls and the historic Willey House. Dry River Campground on the road holds 36 wooded sites at 35 dollars a night with no hookups, primitive from early May, full service from late May and back to primitive in mid-October. Mount Clinton Road, Forest Road 121, leaves it northward and is listed as maintained by the state transport department but not for winter travel. 41
-
Route 26 through Dixville NotchPaved
Colebrook to Errol
The northernmost paved notch, where Dixville Notch State Park covers 127 acres of scenic gorge and waterfalls on two mountain brooks. The Baby Flume drops 18 feet over three steps less than a tenth of a mile from a roadside parking area, and trails climb to Table Rock. The road carries you between the Connecticut River valley and Umbagog with no services between. 42
-
Stark and Stratford into the Nash Stream Forest
The way into the largest state reservation in New Hampshire, just under 40,000 acres across Columbia, Stark, Stratford and the unincorporated place of Odell. The Division of Forests and Lands warns that gravel and concrete trucks have the right of way and asks drivers to give them space and pull over, and says road conditions are subject to change through the season. It publishes no length or surface class for the road. 36
- Season
- The main gate opens for the summer season in late May
-
Jericho Mountain 4x4 trail
A signed state park trail for Jeeps and trucks, priced at 20 dollars per vehicle for up to two occupants and 4 dollars for each further person, inside a park that also runs 75 miles of OHRV trail and connects to the 1,000 miles in Coos County. The campground holds 20 sites: 5 cabins, 4 tent sites, 2 Adirondack shelters and 9 with RV hookups, with showers and laundry. RSA 215-A:10 designates Jericho Lake Road in Berlin from Route 110 to the park for OHRV use, so the approach is legal on the machine as well as the trailer. 39
- Vehicle
- The park asks for a winch, modified tyres and other modifications
-
Route 16 through the Thirteen Mile WoodsPaved
Berlin to Errol and the Umbagog country
The Androscoggin River road north, with Mollidgewock State Park on the bank inside the Thirteen Mile Woods Scenic Area about 28 miles north of Berlin and three miles south of Errol: 44 tent sites, 42 at base camp and 2 remote, at 29 dollars a night with no hookups. Umbagog Lake State Park sits at the top of the run with 27 developed sites and 2 cabins at base camp plus 33 remote campsites and 4 remote cabins reached only by boat, on a lake whose refuge conserves more than 37,000 acres across two states. 45
Rules worth knowing
- A registered truck is an OHRV here when it is driven for recreation
- RSA 215-A:1, VI defines an off highway recreational vehicle and then states that “All legally registered motorized vehicles when used for off highway recreational purposes shall fall within the meaning of this definition; provided that, when said motor vehicle is being used for transportation purposes only, it shall be deemed that said motor vehicle is not being used for recreational purposes.” RSA 215-A:21, V then requires registration of every OHRV “except conventional motor vehicles registered for highway use”, so no sticker is needed for a plated truck. Reading the two together is our own, not a quotation: no second registration, but the chapter’s conduct rules are written about you. 25
- Registering an actual machine, and what it costs
- New Hampshire Fish and Game registers an ATV, UTV or other OHRV at 89 dollars for a resident and 108 for a non-resident, dropping to 59 and 78 on proof of membership of a New Hampshire club affiliated to the state off highway vehicle association. Trail bikes are 80 and 99, or 50 and 69. A two dollar transaction fee is inside each price. Annual registrations run 1 May to 30 April. Non-residents can buy a ten-day temporary registration for 42 dollars, May through October, wheeled vehicles only. RSA 215-A:23 prints 81 and 51 for the resident figures; the department’s live table is used here and the statute’s numbers are named. 30
- Six sections of state highway are open to off highway vehicles
- RSA 215-A:10, IV(c) names them: Back Lake Road in Pittsburg from the town dump to Route 3; Route 3 in Pittsburg from Back Lake Road to Route 145; Route 145 in Pittsburg and Clarksville from Route 3 to Cedar Stream Road; Diamond Pond Road in Stewartstown from the town-owned section south to Charles Heath Road; Jericho Lake Road in Berlin from Route 110 to Jericho Mountain State Park; and the reduced speed section of Route 3 in North Stratford as needed to reach services. The same paragraph allows the bureau of trails to designate further stretches in Coos and Grafton counties with transport and safety department approval and a public meeting, and bars OHRV use from any interstate, toll or divided highway. 26
- An operator needs a licence or a training certificate
- RSA 215-A:29 bars anyone from operating an OHRV on land they, a parent, grandparent or guardian do not own unless they are twelve or older and have either completed an approved snowmobile or OHRV training programme or hold a driving licence under RSA 263 or its equivalent elsewhere. Under fourteen, they must be accompanied at all times by somebody eighteen or over who meets that condition. Anyone riding along the travelled portion of a public highway where it is permitted must hold the driving licence, or be accompanied by a licensed person aged 25 or over who takes legal responsibility. 29
- Every fire needs a written permit from the town fire warden
- Permits have been required since 1911. Anyone kindling any fire or burning any material, except when the ground is covered with snow, must hold a written permit from the forest fire warden of the town or city where the fire will be lit. A Category I fire, up to 32 inches across in a fire resistive ring or portable fireplace and 25 feet from structures, may be lit at any hour. Category II, up to 48 inches and 50 feet from structures, and Category III, anything larger or not in a ring, may only be lit between 5pm and 9am unless it is actually raining. Only untreated wood, untreated pallets, campfire wood, brush or charcoal, none thicker than five inches. Burning without a permit is a misdemeanour and leaves you liable to the town for the cost of putting the fire out. 37
- No sleeping in a vehicle at a trailhead or day-use lot
- The White Mountain National Forest states that occupying a vehicle overnight is prohibited in all trailhead and day-use parking lots, and allows it only at designated campsites within developed campgrounds. Camping at one campsite is capped at 14 nights, which is also the subject of forest supervisor’s order R9-22-19-28, and every campground and cabin reservation must be made at least four days in advance. Dogs are welcome but must be leashed in developed recreation areas. 7
- Dispersed camping is fixed by distance, not by permission
- Camping and wood or charcoal fires are prohibited within 200 feet of certain trails and water bodies, within a quarter mile of backcountry facilities including shelters, huts and trailheads, within a quarter mile of certain roads, and in the alpine zone where trees stand eight feet or less, except on two feet of snow. Which roads and trails those are is set by the Forest Protection Area maps, which cover areas where limits on camping, on wood and charcoal fires and on party size apply. Where roadside camping is allowed the forest has built 57 designated sites on four roads: Gale River Loop 13, Old Cherry Mountain 9, Haystack 11 and Town Hall 24. 6
- Forest Protection Area maps hold the detail behind the distances
- The forest publishes three Forest Protection Area maps, covering the Androscoggin and Saco districts, the West Pemi district, and the Pemi and Saco districts. It describes a Forest Protection Area as a potentially overused or fragile area where use restrictions are applied, and says those restrictions may include limits on camping use, on wood and charcoal fires, and on party size. The quarter mile and 200 foot rules are general; these maps are where the particular roads, trails and water bodies are named, so carry the one for the district you are in. 13
- Five motor vehicle use maps say where a vehicle may be driven
- The White Mountain National Forest publishes motor vehicle use maps for five areas: Kilkenny, Maine, Presidential, Sandwich and the Westside of the Forest, all carrying a release date of 8 July 2025. They are sold through the US Geological Survey map store and at Forest Service offices. A motor vehicle use map is the legal statement of which routes are open to which class of vehicle, so it is the document that settles an argument about a road, not the visitor map. 14
- Forty-one standing orders sit behind the signs
- The forest supervisor’s orders page lists them, and the ones a vehicle runs into are specific: R9-22-19-04 camping and fire restrictions on selected roads, R9-22-19-03 no camping or fires in the alpine zones, R9-22-19-05 restrictions near water, R9-22-19-06 no camping or fires within 200 feet of certain trails, R9-22-19-28 the 14-day occupancy limit, R9-22-19-29 parking, R9-22-19-23 parking on Tripoli Road, R9-22-19-31 the standing closure order for roads, trails and areas, R9-22-19-33 firewood, R9-22-19-20 motor vehicle violations and R9-22-24-02 food storage. Orders are amended and added to, so read the list rather than assuming last year’s. 11
- The Pemigewasset Wilderness requires a certified bear canister
- Forest order R9-22-26-03, effective 1 May 2026, requires all food, food containers, scented items such as soap, lip balm and toothpaste, and refuse to be stored in a cylindrical, hard-sided, non-pliable canister certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee throughout the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The only exception is the bear-resistant food boxes at Thirteen Falls Tent Site. The forest states that failure to comply could result in fines or permit revocation, and it runs a separate standing food storage order, R9-22-24-02, over the rest of the forest. 9
- Town Hall Road is closed to roadside camping and open fires
- Forest order R9-22-05-26-04 runs from 1 June 2026 to 1 June 2031 over National Forest System Road 17, Slippery Brook Road, and National Forest System Road 38, East Branch Road, in Jackson and Chatham, a seven-mile road system known as Town Hall Road. It prohibits camping within a quarter mile of a road except at designated campsites, and building, maintaining, attending or using a wood or charcoal fire within a quarter mile except at designated sites. Portable camp stoves running on pressurised fuel are allowed. Orders of this kind are listed on the forest’s supervisor’s orders page, which currently carries 41 of them. 10
- Wilderness caps the group at ten and asks for no permit
- The forest holds six designated wilderness areas totalling 149,500 acres: Sandwich Range 35,800, Pemigewasset 45,000, Presidential Range-Dry River 29,000, Great Gulf 5,552, Wild River 23,700 and Caribou-Speckled Mountain 14,000. Hiking and camping group size is limited to ten people or fewer. No permit is needed to visit or backpack unless you are providing outfitter or guide services. Individual areas add their own camping setbacks, including no camping within 200 feet of any trail in the Pemigewasset and within 200 feet of Black Mountain Pond in the Sandwich Range. 8
- Most of the forest is free, and some developed sites are not
- The Forest Service states that most White Mountain National Forest land is open and free of charge, and that some developed sites require a recreation pass. Valid passes are the daily pass, the forest’s own annual passes, Interagency passes and Golden Age and Access passes, and several seasonal sites carry no fee in winter. The forest publishes no price table on that page, so no price is stated here. The Federal Highway Administration adds the practical version on both byway pages: driving costs nothing, but an unattended car parked in the national forest needs a pass. 17
- One forest campground stays open through the winter
- Hancock Campground on the Kancamagus Highway, 56 wooded sites five miles east of Lincoln at the western end of the byway, is open year round with limited services in the winter, at 30 dollars a night with 6 dollars for each additional vehicle. Holders of Golden Age, Golden Access, Senior and Access passes pay half. Some of its sites are reservable and the rest are first come, first served. Every other developed campground on this forest runs a season that ends in October. 18
- Spring posts the state highways at 30,000 pounds
- The transport department states that the maximum allowable vehicular weight on posted sections of state highways is 30,000 pounds gross, or the cumulative width in inches of all tyres touching the road multiplied by 300, whichever is less. RSA 236:3-a exempts trucks carrying home heating oil, processed milk products, maple sap and septic pumper trucks, with district engineer approval. Which roads are posted in a given spring is published on the state’s 511 service rather than as a fixed list. New Hampshire publishes no chain or traction requirement; its winter guidance is a maintenance policy and a set of driving recommendations. 32
- There is no chain law, so the tyre is the whole plan
- The transport department publishes a Winter Maintenance, Snow Removal and Ice Control Policy and a set of winter highway classifications setting out when and where it plows, sands and salts, along with operational guidelines for materials and application rates. What it does not publish is a traction or chain standard for the travelling public. Its advice is to slow for wet, snowy or icy conditions and where visibility is poor, to slow again at intersections, off-ramps, bridges and shady spots that develop ice, to allow more space between vehicles and to avoid cruise control. Nothing obliges you to fit anything, which means the decision is entirely yours. 34
- Posted land, and the landowner who can send you off it
- RSA 215-A:21, I states that registration “does not constitute a license to operate said vehicle on private land”, and that anyone operating an OHRV on another’s land must stop and identify themselves on request and promptly remove the vehicle if asked. RSA 215-A:34 lets an owner post ground with “OHRVs PROHIBITED” or an equivalent symbol readable at 50 feet, and makes entering it a violation. The same section adds that a failure to post is not to be read as granting any licence to enter. On state land RSA 215-A:6 sets prima facie speed limits including 20 miles per hour on plowed roads of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources open to OHRV use and 35 on approved trails unless posted otherwise. 27
- State park camping runs to 14 days, four adults and quiet at ten
- There is a 14-day maximum per visit at every New Hampshire state park campground except the Hampton Beach and Ellacoya RV parks, where nobody may stay longer than a cumulative 14 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Quiet hours run 10pm to 7am and no generator may run during them. Check in is between 1pm and 8pm and check out by 11am. The nightly rate covers two adults and up to four children, with a maximum of four adults and six people on a site, and the reservation fee is 7 dollars. Drone use is restricted at all New Hampshire state parks: operators may not take off or land inside park boundaries. 51
- Coos County trails stay open to the second Monday in October
- RSA 215-A:3-c states that “Notwithstanding any conservation easement provisions or other contracts, laws, or rules to the contrary, all existing OHRV trails on the Connecticut Lakes headwaters working forest property shall remain open through the second Monday in October, which is Columbus Day.” That property is 146,000 acres of privately owned commercial forestry land held under easement in partnership with the Connecticut Lakes Realty Trust, with gates and working logging traffic. RSA 215-A:27 gives reciprocity to an OHRV registered in Vermont, Maine or Quebec to the extent that state or province returns the favour. 28
- What a state park site holds, and what it costs
- The nightly rate covers two adults and up to four children, the maximum on a site is four adults and six people in all, and each extra adult is 10 dollars a night and each extra child 5. The reservation fee is 7 dollars and bookings open up to eleven months ahead. Rates run from 29 dollars for a primitive site through to 80 for a deluxe remote cabin at Umbagog, with RV park sites between 35 and 70 depending on hookups. A New Hampshire resident aged 65 or over takes 5 dollars off a site per night except on holidays. 52
- Nobody spends the night on the summit
- Mount Washington State Park is a 58.8-acre parcel on the summit of the highest peak in the northeast, holding the Sherman Adams visitor centre, a cafeteria, the Mount Washington Observatory and its museum in a building designed to withstand winds over 200 miles per hour. In 2026 it ran 13 June to 12 October with limited service to 18 October. The Cog Railway, the Auto Road and the hiking trails are the three ways up. The park is a day-use place, which is why the road company tells drivers plainly that there is no camping in the state park and no leaving a vehicle on the summit overnight. 43
- Two northern parks put ATV sites beside the trail
- Lake Francis State Park at Pittsburg sits on a 2,000 acre lake near the Connecticut Lakes and holds 45 sites, of which 9 have water and 20 amp electric and 9 are set aside for ATV camping, with remote sites as well. Its trails connect with the 1,000 miles of OHRV trail in Coos County. Coleman State Park does the same twelve miles east of Colebrook. If the trip is built around a machine on a trailer, these two are where the trailer and the tent go. 47
- The summit road is a private toll road with its own rules
- The Mount Washington Auto Road is operated by a company, not by an agency, and its conditions are contractual rather than statutory. It states that there is no camping overnight in the state park at the top and no parking a vehicle on the summit overnight. It describes itself as a steep, narrow mountain road without guardrails, tells drivers to descend in low gear and to pump the brakes rather than ride them, and points to turnouts for cooling them. High winds can close it to motorcycles. Treat everything it publishes as the road owner’s terms of entry. 56
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
