New Hampshire
Mud Pond Trail
A wheelchair accessible trail and boardwalk to a northern white cedar and black spruce seepage swamp and a fen around Mud Pond.
Loop Trail? No
Type: Nature Trail
Agency: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Entry Fee? No
There is no fee for use but we encourage visitors to purchase Duck Stamps How?
Parking Fee? No Allowed Uses:
Pedestrian - Walking/Hiking/Running
Snow - Snowshoeing
Wildlife Observation
Location: Pondicherry National Wildlife Refuge near Jefferson, New Hampshire.
State(s): New Hampshire
Counties: Coos
Longitude: -71.51318
Latitude: 44.39722
Driving Directions
From Jefferson, NH take Route 116 west 3 miles to the Mud Pond Trailhead.
Description
The Mud Pond Trail is on the Pondicherry Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge and is universally accessible. The trail was constructed by the Youth Conservation Corps, US Fish and Wildlife Service staff and volunteers from the Friends of Pondicherry over a five summer period. The trail has a 900 foot long raised boardwalk with rest stops that offer extraordinary views of a boreal forest and wetland communities.
Visitors walk through a forest community uncommon to the Connecticut River Valley to a beautiful pond and fen deep within the refuge. Benches allow visitors to sit and observe the wildlife, plant communities, and scenery. Mud Pond is home to three carnivorous plants and unusual wildlife for this part of New England, including Arctic Jutta butterfly, black-backed woodpecker, gray jay, boreal chickadee, yellow-bellied flycatcher, and palm warbler. Moose, black bear, and snowshoe hare are sometimes seen along the trail.
The trailhead was built on a restored log landing and some of the trail follows old logging roads that are being restored. The boardwalk portion is in older forests that have not been harvested for over a century. The trail takes visitors, including those in strollers and wheelchairs on a unique raised boardwalk providing an experience, found nowhere else in New Hampshire. The trail is located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where opportunities for wheelchair accessible trails in this mountainous region are limited. The trail is used by local residents, visitors staying at nearby resorts, school groups families with children in strollers, and people confined wheelchairs.
The future plan for the trail is to provide interpretive panels and online resources to help visitors understand the ecology and history of this area.
Additional Details
Width: 56 inches.
Primary Surface: Crushed Rock
Secondary Surface: Boardwalk
Average Grade: 2%
Maximum Grade: 3%
Elevation Low Point: 1,134
Elevation High Point: 1,204
Elevation Gain (cumulative): Not Available
Year Designated: 2013
Supporting Webpages and Documents
Brochure: Interesting Facts about the Mud Pond Trail.Website: American Trails Featured NRT
Contact Information
For more information and current conditions, contact the trail manager (listed below). For questions, suggestions, and corrections to information listed on the website, contact American Trails.
Public Contact:
Barry Parrish
Refuge Manager
US Fish and Wildlife Service
103 East Plumtree Road
Sunderland, MA
01375
(413) 548-8002
[email protected]
Photos
Reviews
should be five stars, not four
I previously rated this hike as four stars. I hadn't yet hiked a lot of National Recreation Trails, and I was comparing this hike to Crawford Path, which is as five star as five star can get.
I have since hiked a variety of NRTs and realize it's not fair to compare trails to one another; each needs to be rated independently. They can be so very different from one another in so many ways!
Everything in NH deserves five stars - the paths are well maintained and always part of a beautiful wild area.
January 23, 2023
Mud Pond Trail, trip date November 2020
This is an easy, short, probably wheelchair-accessible, wide-path walk through the forest to a pond. The boardwalk portion is a beautiful piece of construction. It's secluded and lovely.
July 21, 2021
Love this trail
While I am an experienced hiker, the ease and length of this path are quite enjoyable. It is just long enough to get in a nice little walk. At the end of the trail the payoff is beautiful. I have never seen a moose out there but I’m sure they are lurking behind the scrub brush somewhere. Great care and attention to detail was used in constructing this path and it is a joy to visit.
March 26, 2018
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