Exploring the Devils Den in New Durham
| Date: | 04-03-2021 |
| Location: | New Durham, NH |
| Distance: | 5.8 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 895′ |
| Total Time: | 4 hr 50 min |
| Parking: | 5 cars |
| Difficultly Rating: | Easy |
A last minute change of plans led to an incredibly fun day exploring a haunted hike. I met friends Katlyn and Kahtoolas for this hike in Alton on a bright sunny day. It was such a nice day I was second guessing whether we should be exploring a cave.
From what I have read this is no ordinary cave. This was a Devil’s Den. I had first heard of this hike in the Haunted Hikes book by Marianne O’Connor. This hike has intrigued me for a while and I was glad to finally be able to check it out.
We arrived at the parking area on Merrymeeting Road. There was enough room for about 5 cars on the side of the road. This is where the Chesley Class 6 Road starts and takes you the trail head at the base of Devils Den Mountain.
Once we arrived at the trailhead we took a few pics and started up the mountain. As we got closer we could see the cliffs jetting out of the ground. The rocky slabs are massive. We first stayed to the left and headed up to the top of the mountain. The top is pretty flat and mostly open with some nice views. Although once the leaves pop on the trees the views will be limited.
We took a quick break here and enjoyed the scenery then headed back down toward the cave. On our way we got side tracked by a heard path we thought might be a short cut. It was not. It was a dead end. So we back tracked to the trail below us and followed the Green Blazes to the bottom of the den.
The walk along this trail was beautiful, it follows the face of a long rocky ledge. It looked like something right out of the Flintstones.
The blazes end and you have to climb up to the entrance of the den. Just as we stated up to the Devils Den a porcupine jumped out in front of my friends dog and gave us all a scare. We deiced we would go into the cave one at a time and the other will would Kahtoolas at the bottom.
I was first to go climb up and go into the cave. A few people were up there so it was easy to find. Once at the opening I got down and crawled into the cave. I noticed right away the old iron hinges on the side of the rock wall. It is rumored that they used to lock up witches from around the region.
Other roomers were it was a native American burial ground, maybe a ceremonial cave for rituals. Some say it might just be a shelter for people in the region to escape bad weather. What ever you choose to believe it is both creepy and interesting.
Inside the cave it was really icy and dark. I did have my headlamp but I did not go all the way in. Perhaps I’ll try again in a few weeks when things thaw a bit. I took some pictures and then made my way back out. Once out I headed back down to let Katlyn go into the cave.
Once we were done we started heading back and talked about checking out the summit of Mt. Molly. Our GPS showed us that the trail was right on the same path we were walking on. So we decided to check it out.
Turns out this was a great decision. Once we reached the top of the mountain we were surprised to see what great views we had. There were a few others up there enjoying the view as well and we noticed that there is a log book to sign. So we did.
After enjoying the views for a while and some snacks we started back down. While looking at the GPS we noticed that there was a cemetery located along the trail so we decided to look for that as well.
When we got near to where the cemetery was we noticed a few caller holes from some old structures near a stone wall. We would have to follow this wall to get to the cemetery because there were not roads or trails to it.
When we arrived at the cemetery we first noticed a large grave stone that said:
Miles Chesley
Died
April 15, 1861
Aged 91 Yrs. 2 Months & 21 Days
Behind it we noticed another stone that was helping support the first stone. We could not read what the second stone said because it was broken in many pieces. As we looked around we also saw a number of other stone looking rocks standing on end. They were not very tall and were not inscribed with anything.
Once we finished looking around we headed back to the where the cellars were and found some other artifacts and signs of old buildings before heading back to the car.
What a great day! I love it when a small hike turns into an unexpected adventure. To anyone else going to visit the Devil’s Den I would highly recommend taking a side track up to Mt. Molly. Totally worth it.
