Skip to main content

Old New Hampshire Route 10 in Keene, New Hampshire

Image
By
The people who know me best know that I am as much of a waterfall enthusiast as I am a road enthusiast. When I was looking to make a day trip to southwestern New Hampshire in May 2018, I decided to check out Beaver Brook Falls in Keene. What I wasn't expecting is that the trail to the waterfall is a well preserved old alignment of NH 10 leading northeast from the city of Keene. That was a pleasant surprise. The old alignment of NH 10 is on a road called Washington Street Extension, which was bypassed by the early 1980s by a northern bypass of Keene utilizing NH 9 and NH 10.

Not too much has changed with the old road since the bypass opened other than the forces of time. The old pavement, guide rail posts and bridge over the Beaver Brook remain today in a quiet, forested environment. You can follow the old road about a half mile to the Old Man of Keene (a rock formation) and to Beaver Brook Falls, located 0.7 miles from the trailhead. Let's take a look and see what the old alignment of NH 10 in Keene looks like today...

The journey begins at a gate at the end of Washington Street Extension. The old road is now a nature walk operated by the City of Keene Parks & Recreation Department that brings you to the Old Man of Keene and Beaver Brook Falls. Parking is along the shoulder of Washington Street Extension.

You can notice some old pavement markings along the old road. The old road is being encroached by nature over time. Maybe that is by design, or maybe the road was not wide enough to begin with.

Continuing up the old road.

Some old guide rails.

Some sweeping curves too.
The Beaver Brook.
Crossing the Beaver Brook on an old bridge.
Some fallen rock meets the road.

Lots of leaves have collected along the old roadway, almost completely covering the road.

The Old Man of Keene, presumably named for its resemblance to the late, great Old Man of the Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.


Getting closer to Beaver Brook Falls, the old road hugs the hillside and the Beaver Brook. It's a bit narrow through this stretch, so you can see why a northern bypass of Keene for NH 10 was built on a different alignment.

The lands of Beaver Brook Canyon were generously donated to the City of Keene in 1969 for the public's enjoyment and passive recreation.

There is a pullout to the right, which is conveniently located next to Beaver Brook Falls.

Beyond the waterfall, the old alignment of NH 10 has returned to nature.

Beaver Brook Falls of Keene, not to be confused with the Beaver Brook Falls in Colebrook, New Hampshire. Beaver Brook Falls is a 12 foot tall plunge waterfall that cascades downstream. You won't get a good view of the waterfall from the old road, so you will need to make a short bushwhack down a slope to the Beaver Brook to check out the waterfall. There is a herd path down to the Beaver Brook that you may be able to make out from the old road itself.

A little wider view of Beaver Brook Falls. At this point, I took my picture, climbed the slope back to the old road and walked back to my car.



How to Get There:

Sources and Links:
New England Waterfalls - Beaver Brook Falls
NH Tour Guide - Beaver Brook Falls Keene NH
NH Family Hikes - Beaver Brook Falls
Keene Sentinel - History of the Keene bypass: Not entirely welcomed at first
Touring NH - Keene
Labels:
Location: 74 Concord Rd, Keene, NH 03431, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

By
Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...
2 comments
Read more

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

By
At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...
1 comment
Read more