The Rocks Estate, Bethlehem
Size: 1,400 acres
Recreation: Trails, Christmas tree farm, historic buildings, wildflower gardens.
What you didn’t know: Locals say the breathtaking panorama of the Presidential Range at sunset is perhaps the best in the White Mountains.
What to look for: Everything! Visitors can enjoy mountain vistas, perfect picnic spots, abundant wildlife, historic buildings, educational displays, delicate wildflowers and year-round family activities.
The inside scoop:
The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem – situated on 1,400 acres with stunning Presidential Range vistas – is a premier Forest Society property. It is perhaps best known for its working Christmas tree farm, historic buildings and gardens and as the Forest Society’s North Country Conservation Center.
But The Rocks Estate also offers year-round opportunities for walking, skiing and wildlife observation.
“The biggest thing that people come here for is the views,” said Nigel Manley, who manages The Rocks Estate. “There are picnic spots all the way through The Rocks – I think the best one is right in the center of the fields where the Christmas trees are. There’s a 360-degree view: You can look at the Presidential Range out to Dalton and all the way around. One of the best kept secrets are the sunsets, which are incredible.”
The Rocks offers marked trails and maps, ranging from the easy family walk through the tree plantation to a 1.5-mile self-guided tour of the estate’s historic buildings and gardens to the five-mile Michael A. Gozzo Memorial Trail.
The Rocks Estate – with its varied habitat of pastures, orchards and woodlands -- provides great opportunities for wildlife viewing. Moose wander through semi-regularly and, Manley said: “We see deer, fisher, coyotes, raccoons red and grey foxes, bobcats…” Goshawks nest here, as do eastern bluebirds. Woodcock and wild turkeys are often spotted in the pastureland.
Janet Hill of Bethlehem hikes and skis at The Rocks year-round. She often makes her way to that height of land among the balsam firs.
“In the summer the grass is long, and Nigel mows a pathway to the viewing spot and there are birdhouses and [birds] dip and dive all around you and it’s very beautiful,” she said. “In the springtime the paths are just a mass of forget-me-nots -- so there’s this blue carpet on either side of the paths; And there’s a little winding path that goes through the woods and that has enormous clumps of snowdrops in the early spring,” Hill says.
“At the top of the hill where there’s the view and the birds in the summer…it sort of fills your senses.”
