Wapack Range

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wapack Range
Range
View from Kidder Mountain
Country	United States
States	New Hampshire, Massachusetts

Highest point	Pack Monadnock
- elevation	2,290 ft (698 m)

Length	18 mi (29 km), north-south

Geology	metamorphic rock, Littleton Formation
Period	Devonian

The Wapack Range, sometimes referred to as the Pack Monadnock Range, is a 20-mile range of mountains in south-central New Hampshire and adjacent Massachusetts. The range is considered very scenic and rugged with many bare summits and ledges ranging from 1,800 feet to 2,290 feet. The 22 mile Wapack Trail, one of the oldest interstate hiking trails in the United States, traverses it. The Wapack Range is also the northern terminus of the 90 mile Midstate Trail.

The range, composed of heavily metamorphosed schist and quartzite, is oriented north-south and is located in the towns of New Ipswich, Temple, Sharon, Peterborough, and Greenfield, New Hampshire; and in Massachusetts, the towns of Ashburnham and Ashby.

Mount Watatic summit.

Notable peaks include, from south to north, Mount Watatic, Pratt Mountain, New Ipswich Mountain, Barrett Mountain, Kidder Mountain, Temple Mountain, Pack Monadnock and North Pack Monadnock.

Significant parcels on the Wapack Range have been conserved as state parks, state forests, or properties managed by non-profit land conservation organizations. Miller State Park, the oldest state park in New Hampshire, is located on Pack Monadnock. A defunct ski area on Temple Mountain was acquired by the state of New Hampshire in 2006 and is also slated for state park status. Conservation efforts on Mount Watatic have resulted in the protection of the mountain from recent attempts to blast a communications tower road to the summit and open the mountain to housing development. The non-profit Friends of the Wapack have been involved in conservation of the range since 1985.