Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee

Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee covers Sullivan County in west-central New Hampshire, the Connecticut River Valley country running along the Vermont line. The terrain is rolling hardwood-and-hemlock hills cut by the Connecticut River along the western boundary and the Sugar River draining north toward it. Sullivan County is the only county in the region. Anchor towns include Claremont (the largest city), Newport (the county seat), Charlestown (with the historic Old Fort Number Four reconstruction), Sunapee, Cornish (with the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park preserving the home and studio of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens), and Plainfield. The Connecticut River Scenic Byway runs the western edge; the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge (the longest two-span covered bridge in the United States) crosses the Connecticut at Cornish. Most trips here run scenic-and-cultural. Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park anchors the region’s most distinctive single visit; the Cornish Colony (the artist community Saint-Gaudens drew around himself in the 1890s) shaped much of the surrounding country; Claremont’s downtown and the Cornish-Windsor bridge fill day trips. Fall foliage runs strong through October.