Visitor's Center Park: Claremont, NH

Directions: Click here for Google map

When I was a high school student in NH, I remember hearing that Claremont was facing a plethora of financial difficulties and, let's just say, was not the prettiest town in the state for visitors. However, in recent years, this rural community has made quite a comeback! I'm not sure how it all happened, but it appears that Federal grants have contributed to widespread restoration. Hooray!

The Claremont Visitor's Center is one of the improvement projects recently completed in the town and it features a quite beautiful park on the Sugar River (complete with a lovely pedestrian bridge over the river). The nearby Historic District Mills make a great backdrop. Dogs are welcome and it's a great place to take a short stroll, have a picnic or read a book! We happened to be there at sunset, which was very pretty. Afterwards, I had dinner on an outdoor patio (just inches from the rushing river) at the Common Man restaurant. The river even flows through the inside of the restaurant, which is really neat.

Information source: City of Claremont

Here are the positive features:

• It's a great place to stop and stretch your legs (if you happen to be in the area)
• Claremont has two good restaurants just around the corner from the park: (The Common Man and Ramunto's).
• The park is new and very pretty
• There's a bin full of plastic bags to clean up after your pup, which is convenient
• The park is reasonably close to other attractions, such as Mt. Ascutney
• There is a big parking lot at the Visitor's Center

Negative features:

• You can't take your dog directly to the river - it's sort of blocked off
• The park is relatively small
• The Common Man doesn't allow dogs on their outdoor patio