Devil's Den Cave in New Durham

I'm not sure what New Hampshire has less of; caves in the wild, or originality when naming our caves in the wild. This summer we plan on searching for Devil's Den Cave in Barrington, last summer we explored Devil's Den Cave in Pawtuckaway State Park, and this weekend we successfully located Devil's Den Cave in New Durham. In New Hampshire at least, the devil is a bigger real estate mogul than Donald Trump.

We made the trek to Devil's Den New Durham over a layer of snow just crispy enough to support every other step. The first half of our hike offered some cool sights, such as the beginnings of this fort some half-ambitious person started constructing out of life-sized lincoln logs.

Soon after we veered off the main course and up a winding trail I believed would shortcut us to the cave. Red marks began appearing on trees, which seemed like a pretty good indication we were headed to something devil related. A mile later we arrived at a cliff which from there our directions said to follow to the right. I had done a good job getting us to this point, but if not for Tina spotting this partly-hidden arrow under the snow I would had led us right past the cave and possibly to a day of futile searching.

Devil's Den Cave is a narrow crevice formed between two giant slabs of rock, and the entrance requires you to hop into this hole and butt-slide your way through the opening.

When faced with daunting challenges such as this in our adventures, we usually proceed in order of common sense and start with the least. So into the hole I went.

Flashlight in hand, I wormed my way into the cave and was greeted with this surprise - through an entrance I had struggled to fit my body someone had maneuvered this wooden ladder. It was aged - some of the rungs were broken and replaced by rope, plus it had come unattached from the rock - but by bracing my body against the far wall I made it to the bottom and took this picture of Tina testing out the ladder herself.

I was impressed she'd made it this far but Tina had no desire to test the sturdiness of the remaining wooden rungs, so I began my trek to the far side of the cave alone. Devil's Den is much too narrow to walk along the bottom, so the only way across is higher up along various ledges such as this one on the left.

Which were just wide enough for me to balance-beam my way across.

Fortunately an opening on the far side of the cave meant I could exit there, and I emerged triumphantly having conquered version #2 of Devil's Den New Hampshire.

 

Even if the possibility of climbing into a hole and getting wedged underground like a cork doesn't excite you, this is a great area to hike and well worth an afternoon just to see the cliffs.

Maybe for our next trip I'll even get Tina to repel down one of them. Of course, I would have to go first.