Devils Den – Ashland, New Hampshire

Date:	10-14-2023
Location:	Ashland, NH
Distance:	2.62 mi
Elevation Gain:	484′
Total Time:	1 hr 51 min
Parking:	5+ cars

The Devils Den is a cave located in the Homestead Forest of Ashland, New Hampshire. My friend Melissa and I set out to find this location after a morning of exploring Thorntons Gore.

The trail head parking is located on Lambert’s Road. Overall, it is pretty easy to find but tucked away in a section of Ashland I have never been to. There is plenty of room for 5+ cars if people park properly.

The Devils Den trail is about 1.5 miles long and gives some options on making a loop back to the car. We decided to hike the trail counterclockwise.

We started with a small road walk to the trailhead. From here it was a steady gradual climb through the forest with some small rock formations. About a half mile in we came to some boulders and cliffs that had some small caves and caverns honeycombed throughout but not the Devils Den.

We continued through and around giant boulders and rock formations. The trail turned up and started to climb again around the rocky outcrops.

As we climbed, we noticed a cave. This was the Devils Den. This cave was large enough for us to climb into. Inside there are lots of little nooks and crannies. Some have light seeping in from the rocks above.

At this point, we were about .75 miles into the trail, so we decided to continue our loop toward Gibban’s Trail junction. This section of trail goes through some rolling hills and offers some fine views at a few overlooks.

As we were hiking, we kept seeing some older blue blazes. Our trail well marked with fresh yellow blazes. We didn’t see any other information about the blue blaze on the kiosk or map at the trail head either.  Maybe an old overgrown trail?

The trail turned up for the last incline toward the trail junction. After a short bit of climbing, we saw the sign. This was the only sign that mentions the Devils Den Trail.

From here we descended the short Gibban’s Trail. There were some large piles of rocks along the path that Melissa insists large horse graves.  I’m not sure exactly what they are but it was a bit odd.

We got to the junction with Lambert Road (trail). At this junction there is a very large barn foundation. So, we looked inside and checked out this mammoth monolith. Very cool.

At this point we just had to go down Lambert Road back to the car. The trail looks like it has recently been diverted off the road due to many blowdowns.

Other trail reports indicated that there was a large amount of mud on this road. I’m glad to report the new trail that goes alongside the road had good footing and was mostly dry.

Lamberts Road was a gradual descend back to the lot. It’s a pretty walk with stone walls and old barbed wire grown into the trees.

Before we knew it we were back at the car. This was a lovely walk in the woods. Not a lot of elevation gain but a lot of different terrain. Lots to explore and I will definably be back to check out some other trails.

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