Big Island Trail

Big Island in Pawtuckaway Lake is accessible by canoe, kayak, or during periods of low water by a shallow crossing, and its circumnavigation trail offers a unique island camping and day-hiking experience within a short drive of Manchester and the Seacoast communities of southern New Hampshire. The island's interior is forested with mature white pine, red oak, and red maple, creating a cathedral-like canopy that shelters a campground used by paddlers who carry in their gear. The shoreline loop trail passes several granite ledge points where common loons are frequently observed fishing in the clear lake water; Pawtuckaway is consistently ranked among the top New Hampshire lakes for loon observation and counts. Osprey nest on the lake and regularly dive from height to catch smallmouth bass and yellow perch visible in the clear shallows around the island. The island's isolation from vehicle traffic creates a distinctly quiet atmosphere even on busy summer weekends, and the sounds of paddling canoes and calling loons provide the soundscape. The island sits within the ring dike geological structure, and its bedrock is composed of the distinctive Pawtuckaway syenite — an unusual silica-poor igneous rock formed in the ancient Jurassic volcanic intrusion that created this landscape.