New Hampshire,  Outdoor Adventures,  Travel

Caves, Waterfalls, and Stairs at Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves in North Woodstock, NH

May 14, 2019 /

Every summer we head up north for some outdoor adventures; one of our favorite places to visit is Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves located in North Woodstock, NH. It has fun caves to explore, beautiful views, and lots of stairs! 🙂 We usually go in the morning before it gets too warm and crowded; it is a popular tourist spot, so we like to try and avoid some of the crowds. Plus, it’s a great way to start off your day and helps you build up an appetite for lunch!

Lost River Gorge Entrance Signs

Although Lost River Gorge isn’t a typical hike, you still want to be sure that you are appropriately dressed; I would definitely wear layers and solid, comfortable shoes. You will be walking a bit, climbing many stairs, and scrambling through caves and up mini ladders if you choose – so flip flops would not be your best choice…

Another important note is that it is not stroller friendly! You can certainly get a stroller up to the start, but that’s as far as you are going – they don’t allow strollers in the gorge. We have always worn Little Man in the Tula for 2 main reasons: 1) It’s a lot of stairs – there is no way that Little Man could even think about walking it at 2 and I’m 99.9% sure he couldn’t do it now at 3; 2) There are open edges along the walkways and we think that Little Man could easily slip under the bottom rail. I don’t think I would have been as worried about that with L, but Little Man really likes to explore…

Lost River Gorge walkway

We have worn Little Man on every visit and it is definitely the best choice for us. Dad and I trade off about half way, so we both have a chance to crawl through some caves with L; you can bypass each cave via the walkway, so it’s easy to just route around and enjoy the view while you wait for the spelunkers. (We have tried to see if we can get through the caves while wearing Little Man, but they are just too tight.)

Lost River Gorge

Ok, back to the adventure. Once you’ve bought your tickets, you head off down the path. There is a walkway for pretty much the entire journey, so you’re not navigating rocky/woodland terrain up or down hill.

Lost River Gorge walkway down

Throughout the walk, there are signs with interesting facts and tidbits about the surroundings; I think we learn something new each time we go!

Lost River Gorge informational sign

After heading downhill for a bit, you hit the “bottom” – at that point, you start your journey back up through the gorge. As you climb, you will see little signs and arrows showing you the caves.

Lost River Gorge cave

Some of the caves are pretty narrow and tight and I’ve had to crawl on my belly to get through at least one! Many of the caves also have little ladders to climb in order to exit the cave.

Lost River Gorge cave ladder

One important note is that we have seen caves closed due to fooding; many of the caves have little streams in them and if there is a lot of run off from the mountain, the streams overflow making the cave impassable…so don’t be surprised if there is a cave closed here or there.

In addition to the caves, there is also a beautiful waterfall.

Lost River Gorge waterfall

Once you get back to the top, there is a little offshoot path that leads to a beautiful view. Definitely check it out — it’s worth the extra stairs!!

Lost River Gorge view

After you finish climbing over 1000 stairs (per the website!) you can find one more cave for the kiddos over by the rotunda. It’s super tiny and for kids only; L reports that it’s pretty fun to climb through!

Lost River Gorge bear den

As you walk back to the entrance, you can wind your way past a HUGE nest with a view! You can get some pretty fun pictures in that nest!

Lost River Gorge nest

The adventure itself is about a mile long and is a pretty good calf and quad workout. L handles it just fine though, so it is definitely doable for the older littles; she did it for the first time when she was 4. Lost River Gorge also offers night lantern tours, but the kiddos have to be at least 5. If you have older kiddos, I think this could be super cool – we have this on our list of things to do when Little Man is older!

We like to combine this adventure with a trip to Loon Mountain – it makes for a fun day exploring caves! Check out my post about riding the gondola and visiting Loon’s caves!

I hope that your family has as much fun on this adventure as mine did!

Lost River Gorge

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