Devil's Den Cave at Pawtuckaway State Park

Being the Granite State, it's easy to assume we would have our fair share of caves here in New Hampshire. Unfortunately that's not the case. Many of the larger ones you'll find in the eastern United States, beginning in New York and heading south, are river-carved caves through softer limestone. The few you'll find in New England are mainly the "boulder cave" variety, meaning they are chambers or caverns formed in the gaps of piled up boulders, and therefore much smaller.

Other than our two commercial caves, we have quite a few smaller ones in the wild of New Hampshire. You can find lists of them online, but you'll be hard pressed to find anyone freely offering their location. The caving community is a tight lipped group, and if you've ever been to a treasured spot and found it littered with graffiti and beer cans you'll understand why. That's not a deterrent to look for them, but if you have to work hard to find one the hope is that you'll treat it with respect.

It was with this spirit of adventure that we headed out to Pawtuckaway Park to search for Devil's Den. (As a side note, this is not the most creative name it could have been given - there are at least 2 other Devil's Den caves in New Hampshire that I know of). We knew it is was somewhere in the vicinity, but not part of, a trail called Boulder Alley. This trail looks exactly like you'd expect it to, littered with boulders and very popular with the rock climbing community. Never one to duck a challenge, here I am after clawing my way up one of the smaller boulders. Madison described this one as looking like an angry pig.

Beyond Boulder Alley is where I believed the cave lay. One thing about hikers is they're a friendly bunch, and this saved us a good amount of walking and disappointment that day. Stopping to talk with a particularly chatty guy I mentioned to him that we were headed to Devil's Den. He was a regular here, and much to my chagrin I had us headed entirely in the wrong direction. He pointed us back toward Boulder Alley and beyond, to a ledge called the Cliffs.

What I knew about the entrance is that is was crooked, almost a 45 degree crawlspace, and that it was located partially up one of the cliffs. Even though we were in the vicinity, and even though I knew the general description, it still took a bit of hunting to find it. But when I did there wasn't much doubt.

Part one of my challenge done, I still had part two. Drag Tina into the cave. Until that point she thought she was there for the hiking only. Nope! It took a few minutes of harassing but I eventually got her to butt-slide down the entrance hole and into Devil's Den.

Pawtuckaway is loaded with places to explore, and I encourage anyone who enjoys the outdoors to spend a day there. There are giant boulders, miles of trails, wild caves to drag your wife into, even old graveyards in the woods to mess with your imagination.

And if you still have time, take a walk down Tower Trail and climb one of New Hampshire's remaining fire watch towers.

If you're like us, one day won't be enough to fit all these adventures in, you'll need to go back a second one to see and appreciate everything.