Adventures in the Lakes Region: Five Finger Point & West Rattlesnake

Greetings from Five Finger Point!

Yesterday I decided to check out some of the lesser used trails around one of the best "bang-for-your-buck" spots in all of New Hampshire, West Rattlesnake Mountain. This 1260 ft. summit is small and stature but huge in views (photos further down), and it is most commonly reached by way of the very easy 0.9-mile Old Bridle Path, a trail that I've referred to as walking up a very gradual ramp. However, my main destination in this area on Saturday was not that summit, but instead the loop trail around Five Finger Point, an area I would discover was a wonderful forest walk along the shores of Squam Lake.

My pup and I started from the Col Trailhead, which is about 6.5 miles from the junction of US-3/NH-25 and NH-113 in Holderness. This trailhead isn't actually marked at all, but it is a woods road a little ways past the large parking area for the Old Bridle Path. Coming from Holderness, it is just before a sign noting the Allen Preserve, and there is room for about 3 cars on the right hand side after you pull into the road.

Start of the Col Trail

From the parking area, we walked around a chain "gate" blocking access for cars to go further down and started down the woods road on foot. It began as wide and easy as the parking area, and was well blazed by a combination of faded yellow marks (the old trail blazes) and newer blue diamonds nailed into trees along the way. After about a quarter-mile, a yellow arrow above a blue diamond noted the clear left turn off the woods road onto a more traditional hiking trail. At this turn, the Col Trail was very thin and slightly overgrown, but this section was short lived and was the only portion of the trail that was in any sort of rough shape.

After the turn into the woods it was a moderate climb around a bog area, where I noticed one sizeable beaver dam, up to the junction with the Ridge Trail. Along the way the trail had pretty good soft footing with only a couple heavily rocky sections along the way. The forest was pretty wide open in this section and allowed views deep into the trees, although we didn't spot any big rambling creatures.

From the junction with the Ridge Trail we took the quick right followed by the quick left (all well noted by trail signs) to continue down the Col Trail, and I mean DOWN. From the junction it was a quick, steep drop down to the Five Finger Point area, heading down off the mountains and closer to the shoreline. Thankfully the footing was soft the whole way down, but I did have to take care to not slip on the pine needles blanketing the ground. Once at the junction with the Pasture Trail, there were once again several trail signs making easy to make sure we stayed headed in the right direction to the Five Finger Point loop.

Trail signs making it easy to stay on track

A left turn just after the Pasture Trail and we were headed out towards Five Finger Point, with this stretch of trail being a pretty rough mix of rocks, roots, and soil. We were hiking right along the edges East Rattlesnake Mountain, looking down at what would be a fun tumble through the woods on our right. Finally we arrived at a large sign denoting the start of the Five Finger loop and began the trek around the shore in a counterclockwise direction.

First view along Five Finger loop

We came upon our first view quickly, just teasing the expanse of Squam Lake as we continued on to the main outlooks further along the trail. The loop had very nice, gentle footing for almost the entirety of the trip. The forest out there was simply magical and felt miles away from any civilization, even as we saw lake houses from the outlooks. Something about the sound of the loons calling to each other and owls hooting in the distance made me feel like it was just me, my pup, and the forest, a real connection with the nature around us.

Tip of the main outlook along the loop

Natural Area Sign at main outlook

The main outlook came about halfway around the loop, where a sign denoted the Five Finger Natural Area as a long stretch of rocky shoreline that slid into some of the clearest lake water I've seen. While my pup took a dip in the lake, I enjoyed the expansive view of Squam Lake stretching out in all directions in front of me. Aside from the group guys chatting among themselves when we arrived, this was one of the most peaceful spots along the lake.

Interesting fungus along the way

We continued from there to finish the loop, taking in a couple sandy outlooks as we walked by on the trail. Once back at the beginning, we headed back towards the Pasture Trail junction, where my pup and I decided to add on to our trip by checking out that way up to West Rattlesnake, a summit we'd been to several times before.

Trail junction post denoting the Pasture Trail

We quickly learned that this decision was a steep and slow one, as the Pasture Trail never let up in elevation gain until we came upon the cliffs at the summit. Thankfully, as with most of the trail, the footing was soft and forgiving, and we didn't really have to navigate any rocky or root-covered climbs.

As usual, the view from West Rattlesnake was beautiful as always, with a view over Squam Lake that just can't be beat. Even on this cloudy, cool day, I was shocked we only saw a couple other families the entire time we were up there.

One of the few families we saw briefly taking in the view

And what a beautiful view it is

After a little less than an hour on the summit, we took the Ridge Trail down to meet up with the Col Trail we started on. It was a quick steep descent, although not as sharp an elevation drop as the gain we had up the Pasture Trail. Once we met up with the Col Trail, it was an easy stroll out to our car, taking in some of the colors of sunset in the clouds as we came around the bog near the woods road as we wrapped things up.

I would definitely recommend a visit to Five Finger Point if you want great views of Squam Lake with less crowds than on West Rattlesnake. It's also a great option when you want to get out in the woods for a little while, but you don't feel like climbing a mountain. As I said at the start, this area is home to some of the best "bang-for-your-buck" hiking in the state, and I can now say that that mantra extends beyond the summit of West Rattlesnake to the trails all around it.

For anyone wanting to get out and explore this area, the New Hampshire Division of Forest and lands has a great trail map in this pamphlet from their site. It's the one I used to plan our route!

Here is the time breakdown from our hike:

• Start at Col Trailhead - 2:28 p.m.
• Ridge Trail Jct. - 2:50 p.m.
• Pasture Trail Jct. - 3:10 p.m.
• Start of Five Finger Loop - 3:25 p.m.
• Finished Five Finger Loop - 4:18 p.m.
• Back at Pasture Trail Jct. - 4:33 p.m.
• West Rattlesnake Summit - 4:45 p.m.
• Departed Rattlesnake Summit via Ridge Trail - 5:38 p.m.
• Back at Col Trailhead - 6:05 p.m.