Dolly Copp Campground Part 2
- otomola
- Sep 7, 2025
- 5 min read
August 24 - September 7, 2025
I arrived at Dolly Copp Campground, in White Mountain National Forest, on August 24 for the second time this year. I was here in June for a week. This time I stayed two weeks, leaving on September 7. I stayed at campsite 136 again. It has a wonderful view of the Imp and the Carter-Moriah Ridge.
Dolly Copp sits in a low lying valley between Carter-Moriah on the east and the Presidential Range to the west. Carter-Moriah has peaks in the range of 4,000 feet. One of those peaks, The Imp is The Imp. It is “only” a 2.2 mile hike, when going up the north trail, but it’s very steep. One can do an out and back or continue and do the entire loop, coming down the south side, at about 6.1 miles. This ridge is spectacular, but it is overshadowed by the Presidential Range with its peaks over 5,000’ and Mount Washington topping out at 6,299’.
Clouds pass over the ridge in a variety of patterns. I don’t know the technical names for them all, but they were mesmerizing. Many days there was a stream of clouds moving north or south above the ridge. They were so entertaining, changing shapes that appeared and disappeared as animals or other entities in the sky, a magic show above the green forests of the White Mountains.
On Monday, my friend Beth, from Kittery, visited me for a couple days arriving in the afternoon and leaving Wednesday morning. (See earlier post, Kittery & Portsmouth). We went to Castle in the Clouds on Tuesday. It is a national historic landmark, an estate covering over 5,000 acres with twenty-eight miles of hiking trails.
Description from the Castle in the Clouds website:
After earning his fortune in the shoe industry at the turn of the 20th century, Tom Plant focused his attention on the Ossipee Mountains in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. In 1913-1914, Tom and his wife Olive built a unique and stunning country estate, which they called Lucknow. The property spanned 6,300 acres and featured a 16-room Arts and Crafts mansion, stable and six-car garage, two gatehouses, a greenhouse, a golf course and tennis court, a man-made lake, a boathouse on Lake Winnipesaukee, and miles of carriage and bridle trails. For several years the Plants enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle at Lucknow, with state-of-the-art amenities, beautiful hand-made furnishings, and a large staff to run the estate.
We stopped at Glen Ellis Falls, near Pinkham Notch, on the way back. Despite the low water in most rivers, Glen Ellis still was putting on a good show.
On Wednesday I drove to Lewiston, Maine (about 90 minutes away) to buy a new bicycle at Rainbow Bikes. I had bought a bike there in 2021, too, during the Covid period when it was hard to find bikes. Hard to believe four years have passed. This time, I bought a Surly Disk Trucker. It is a steel framed, touring bicycle with a wider range of gears than normal road bikes.
Another friend, Sue, visited me on Thursday. She lives in North Carolina, and she comes up to Maine most summers for a couple months, so she was only about an hour away. We did a hike on some trails here near Dolly Copp. She had her cute little dog, Tinsel, with her.
Interesting tidbits: Beth and Sue were roommates, way back in the mid-1970s with my ex-wife, Marilyn (1975-1984). They were also bridesmaids at our wedding. We all did a lot of things together in the mid-1970s but, shortly after said wedding, they moved out of the area. Over time we all lost touch with each other. Sue and I reconnected via Facebook a few years ago, Beth and I about a year ago. I have stopped to see Sue a couple times on my way through North Carolina.
The weather was great for outdoor activities for my entire two weeks at Dolly Copp. There was very little rain, though the dry landscape could certainly use some extended showers. The rivers are running very low.
I met a lot of people, some through long talks and/or several times meeting.
Al and Marion (NH) were here on the last stop of a nearly three month trip that included the Canadian Maritimes. They have a lifetime of experience hiking, skiing, camping, and volunteering in the White Mountains. They were camped next me for an entire week.
Norm and Stacy and their son Jake (NH) were here celebrating Labor Day with a multi-family gathering, around seventy people in total staying in a number of campsites. They brought a lot of wood and had a fire going morning to night for the entire week they were here. They have been doing this for many years over the Labor Day weekend.
Bruce and Deanna (MA), Deanna first stopped by my campsite, while riding her bicycle, and said she recognized my van from somewhere online. The thing that stood out was the road-runner magnet I had on the side of the door. We determined she had Googled something about Dolly Copp or Prince Edward Island, and she had seen my blog in the results.
Gene and Dorothy (Virgina) were on a two week trip exploring many trails and finding out that hiking in this area was very different (trails are steeper, rockier, and with more roots) than the mountains in Virginia. They said it was impressive and humbling.
Ted and Cheryl (NH) were giving their home-built pickup trucker camper its first trip, and they were happy with most of its features and functioning. One change coming: a different mattress. I agree that a good bed is critical to the success of any trip! They are experienced travelers, having done many trips throughout the US and Canada with another truck camper.
Fred and Maureen (Florida) are on a five month trip through the northeast as a first trip after retirement and have explored lots of back-county (washboard logging roads) experiencing the pristine beauty of northern Maine.
I talked with many other people. In part this was due to the location of my campsite, which is at the entrance of Hayes Field Loop. When one gets to the Hayes entrance, they are presented with the beautiful view of the Carter-Moriah Ridge. It literally stops people in their tracks right there, and in that space and time I had short talks with several people out walking, because they would often find me sitting in my chair taking in the view while reading or just sitting and taking in the view myself.
Over the Labor Day weekend, the campground was full, all 180 campsites. It was a festive environment, one where people had fun while being respective of the posted quiet times.
The following weekend, even on Friday and Saturday, it was remarkably quiet. Of the eighteen campsites on my loop, only two are occupied, and the pattern of occupancy seems repeated through all of the other ten loops. There were six sites that had been reserved for the weekend, but they were all no-shows.
Note: the campground closes the day after Columbus Day.
I did several bike rides, though I cut back on distance, and especially hills, due to some pain in my right hip. It was more of a discomfort than a pain. Oddly, it did not bother me at all while riding, but it did so while sitting and lying down. I thought maybe less biking and hiking might be good for it until I could see an orthopedic when I return to Danbury. Still, I did about 270 miles, while here for two weeks and at nearby Hastings Campground for three days.
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