Appalachian Mountain Club
New Hampshire is well-known for its famous 4,000-footers, a collection of 48 peaks in the White Mountains that attract climbers from all around the world. These are well documented in Appalachian Mountain Club's (AMC) White Mountain Guide. While these peaks are indeed beautiful, challenging, formidable, and even deadly, a whole world of hiking exists well south of the higher summits.
Southern New Hampshire -- generally designated in guidebook parlance as the territory south of state route 25 -- offers some of the most interesting, diverse, and scenic hiking anywhere. I don't just say that because I live here and I'm biased; I've been exploring southern New Hampshire for decades.
In this part of the state you'll find everything that you will in the Whites on a smaller scale -- sweeping summit views, wild forests, waterfalls, tranquil lakes and ponds, and pockets of solitude within this more populated region.
AMC's Southern New Hampshire Trail Guide (and its companion map) collects these outdoor experiences into a comprehensive package. Mt. Monadnock isn't the only place to visit down here; there is so much more! The upcoming 6th edition of this essential guidebook, which will be published in 2025, is the largest ever, due in part to the recent boom in both land conservation and trail building. Southern New Hampshire now has so many outdoor spaces to explore that's it's difficult to cover them all but I've tried to include as many as possible in the 6th edition to really set it apart from previous editions. It really does feel like a whole new book!