Some of our covered bridges are almost impossible to miss. Others are almost impossible to find!!! The following tips will help you stay pointed in the right direction:
1) Get directions before you leave home! MapQuest is a great resource. Obtain exact directions from your departure point to the bridge. MapQuest recognizes every bridge listed on this website as a destination. If you're heading to the Edgell Bridge in Lyme, simply enter "Edgell Bridge Lyme NH", as your destination and MapQuest will give you exact directions. Some of our bridges are really out there in the sticks. Don't assume you can stop and ask for directions. The nearest house might well be 15 miles away.
2) Have plenty of gas in your vehicle! If you're trying to hit several covered bridges in one day, don't assume there will be a gas station at every intersection. In some areas of the state, gas stations are 30 to 40 miles apart.
3) Bring a map! As much as I highly recommend MapQuest, relying solely on its directions can lead you down a dead end street. I mean that literally! In barely 24 hours I visited 27 covered bridges in the southwestern part of the state. With my printed directions from MapQuest in hand, I flew into a woman's yard and almost slammed into her barn! The road MapQuest sent me on had been abandoned years earlier but was still on the town's books "for tax reasons". Bring a map to avoid having to explain to unwary locals why you thought their flower garden was a road or why you almost slammed into their barn!
4) Bring a camera! No further explanation necessary.
5) Pack a lunch! Have a picnic. Enjoy nature. Relax and revel in a Granite State of Mind. If you have a picnic basket and cooler in the back seat, I guarantee you're going to pass a spot somewhere that just screams, "Have lunch here!" On the way to photograph covered bridges in the Great North Woods, I had a picnic on the way up Crawford Notch. Not at the top of the Notch, but halfway up it! The incline was so steep my grapes kept rolling off the blanket but I wouldn't have wanted to have lunch anywhere else.
6) Support our local businesses! Shopping at Cumberland Farms will not put shoes on your neighbor's feet. Buying gas at an Irving/Circle K will not put food on the table of anyone in your neighborhood. Shop local. Buy local. New Hampshire has 1000s of locally-owned country stores, gift shops, gas stations and restaurants. Buy from them. The business owner you save from bankruptcy probably lives just down the street!