Hwy-25 northeast from Meredith leads to Conway in the White Mountains; US-3 northwest, on the other hand, keeps you in the Lakes Region a little longer, leading past Squam Lake , where portions of the movie On Golden Pond were filmed. Educational tours of the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center at Holderness (May-Nov daily 9.30am-4.30pm; $8) lead through a largely natural landscape, in which animals such as deer, bobcat, otters, bears and foxes are kept (mostly short-term) in enclosures and loon-sighting cruises are offered on the lake. Squam Lake Tours also offers three tours daily, May through October (tel 603/968-7577), as well as a sunset tour from June to August.

Five miles on from Holderness at Plymouth , you can either rejoin I-93 as it heads into the mountains, or continue another five miles west to the misleadingly named Polar Caves , actually little more than a cascade of clammy granite boulders tumbled against a hillside and entirely missable.

Northwards to the mountains

• Northwards to the mountains

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