Look at a map of Nottingham. You will find over five thousand acres of thick woods called Pawtuckaway State Park, a place where giant glaciers literally dropped house-sized boulders thousands of years ago. Climbers call these rocks glacial erratics. You can actually squeeze through tight stone crevices or try to scale the sheer granite faces on trails like the Boulder Trail. It is tough work. If you hike up to the fire tower on South Mountain, you get a view of the entire forest stretching out to the horizon.

But maybe you hate hiking. That is fine because the park wraps around a massive 783-acre lake where you can rent a kayak, paddle past active beaver dams, or just lounge on the sandy beach. Families crowd the waterfront on hot July weekends. You can pitch a tent at one of the shady campsites right near the water's edge, though you have to reserve them months in advance. Trust me on that. Bring some bug spray and your swim gear, and you are set for a solid weekend away from your screens.

Long ago, sheep grazed these hills. In the 1800s, local farming families like the Chases and the Goffs cleared the thick pine forests to build homesteads. They piled up heavy granite rocks to build miles of boundary walls, backbreaking work that defined the era. But farming here was brutal. The thin, rocky soil eventually broke their spirits, forcing them to abandon their hard-scrabble properties. The forest reclaimed the pastures. The state bought the first tracts of this worn-out land in 1915. Loggers had already stripped the hillsides bare anyway.

You can still find their ghosts out there. If you hike off the main trails, you will stumble across sunken cellar holes and quiet family cemeteries. Look closely at the gravestones. Some markers date back to the late 1700s, worn smooth by centuries of rain. Then there is the fire tower. Built on South Mountain in 1915, this wooden-and-metal sentinel helped watchmen spot smoke rising from the surrounding valleys. Actually, a civilian watchman lived up there during the dry seasons. It still stands today. You can climb it for a view that stretches all the way to the ocean on a clear day.