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BOutdoors
Outdoors in Thornton

49% of Thornton’s land is conserved: 15,563 acres

65 miles of mapped trail cross Thornton, 1.3 per square mile of land. 7% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 7 acres are parks and preserves, 2.4 per 1,000 residents.

Ahead of 55% of U.S. towns · #117 of 126 in New Hampshire. What drives it

Conserved land
49%
15,563 acres · of 50.1 sq mi of land
Trails
65 mi
1.3 per sq mi of land
Park land
7 ac
2.4 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
7%
of residents within ½ mile
Highest peak
2,133 ft
Cone Mountain
Lakes & rivers
6

What kind of outdoors town is Thornton?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

Land that stays wild49% of the land is conserved; a typical New Hampshire town, 19%.A trail town1.3 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, more than 86% of U.S. towns.
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Thornton have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Thornton is ahead of 55% of U.S. towns, #117 of 126 in New Hampshire. Conserved land holds the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.

B
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Thornton’s overall grade.
Conserved land49% of the land · typical NH town 19% · U.S. 4%A+Trails1.3 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (65 mi) · NH 1.2 · U.S. 0.4APark land2.4 acres of park per 1,000 residents (7 acres) · NH 44 · U.S. 13C−Parks close to home7% of residents within a half mile of a park · NH 40% · U.S. 72%D
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 55%
LessMore
New Hampshire towns of 2,500+ (126)Ahead of 7%

New Hampshire towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 19%; the U.S., 4%), so Thornton’s 49% is ahead of 97% of New Hampshire towns, while its trails per square mile lead 53% of them.

How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

123
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk

Pick a walk

Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Nature preserve
88 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Crawfords Memorial Field

Park
2 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet

Pemigewasset Wildlife Management Area

Managed by NH Fish & Game
1 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects it

15,563 conserved acres

49% of Thornton’s land. Who manages Thornton’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

U.S. Forest Service15,628 ac
Not recorded48 ac
National Forest · 15,393 acConservation Easement · 235 acState Conservation Area · 31 acWatershed Protection Area · 17 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 121 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 6 of 9 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
White Mountain National Forest
National Forest
U.S. Forest Service15,393Open
Ballou
State Conservation Area
Not recorded29Unknown
Waterville Estates Village District Land
Watershed Protection Area
Not recorded17Unknown
Pemigewasset Wildlife Management Area
State Conservation Area
Not recorded2Unknown
Things to do

15 places to go in Thornton

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Peaks in Thornton
Cone Mountain2,133 ft elevation
Directions
Hix Mountain2,096 ft elevation
Directions
Brown Ash Swamp Hill North2,008 ft elevation
Directions
Wanosha Mountain1,535 ft elevation
Directions
Blake Mountain1,532 ft elevation
Directions
Trails & water

25 named trails and 6 lakes & rivers

Named trails
Open to bikes · 3.9 miUnpaved · 25.8 mi
Welch-Dickey Loop Trail2.8 mi
6072.1 mi
3782.0 mi
311.9 mi
2121.7 mi
USFS Road 231.7 mi
Peaked Hill Pond Trail1.6 mi
Dickey Notch Trail1.6 mi
31B1.2 mi
4091.1 mi
15 more trails
Jeep Trail
1.0 mi
4085
0.9 mi
462
0.9 mi
23C
0.8 mi
Tritown XC Trail
0.8 mi
Mad River Run
0.7 mi
411
0.7 mi
USFS Road 23A
0.6 mi
206
0.6 mi
Old Waterville Road XC Trail
0.4 mi
Smarts Brook Trail
0.4 mi
378A
0.4 mi
Pine Flat XC Trail
0.4 mi
51
0.4 mi
Birches Link Trail
0.3 mi
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Cone PondMud PondpondPeaked Hill PondHubbard BrookMad RiverPemigewasset River
Biking & sports

0.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

Courts & fields
10Tennis

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

When to get out

The best walking months in Thornton: May, June, August and September

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.210.411.813.414.715.515.214.012.410.99.68.9
High (°F)283241546775807871574534
Rain (in)3.42.73.23.63.94.45.04.23.94.93.84.3

February is the driest month (2.7 in) and July the warmest (highs of 80 °F). 5.0 inches fall in July, the wettest month. The climate in Thornton →

Next door

Thornton and its neighbors

Thornton has the second most mapped trails of the 4 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.

Waterville Valley103 miThornton65 miWoodstock46 miCampton42 mi
TownConserved
of land		Trail mi
per sq mi		Park acres
per 1,000		Near a park
½ mile		Outdoors
Thornton49%1.327%B
Campton11%0.836%C+
Woodstock82%0.8333%B
Waterville Valley— not graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.

Questions about parks and trails in Thornton

How much of Thornton is conserved land?

49% of its land, against a typical 19% for a New Hampshire town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Are dogs allowed on Thornton’s trails?

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and Crawfords Memorial Field don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.

Is there public land near Thornton?

123,430 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Thornton or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 15,160 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Thornton have?

Ahead of 55% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #117 of 126 in New Hampshire. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Thornton neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →