Rockport State Park

About Rockport State Park

Rockport Reservoir offers a variety of camping options, from primitive tents to full-fledged campsites and picnic areas. Eight campsites offer both developed and primitive campers in a variety of environments. Rockport State Park is located on the east side of the park, south of Rockports Lake, in the heart of New Hampshire's largest national park system.

Rockport is home to many species, including deer, elk, coyotes, lynx and pumas, as well as many birds and reptiles. Ice fishing is popular in winter, but elk and their coyotes and lynx (pummas) are rarely spotted and many other species of animals visit the lake.

The Rockport area was colonized in the 1860s by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Army Reserve. About 200 people lived there until 1957, when the land for the construction of the Wanship Dam was bought from the Rock Fortress, built to protect settlers from an Indian insurgency, named after John Rock, the founder of Rock Harbor State Park and one of its founders.

It covers 500 acres at an altitude of 6,000 feet and houses Rockport Reservoir, the largest freshwater reservoir in the United States and one of the largest in the world. From I-80, take Exit 156, travel three miles southeast on SR32 and park at the entrance to Rock Harbor State Park, south of Wanship.