Fly Fishing the Saco River. Bill Thompson

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      16 . Saco River

       Location: Northeast New Hampshire, about a 3-hour ride from Boston, Massachusetts; about a 1½-hour ride from Portland, Maine and Manchester, New Hampshire. Full-service airports are available in all three cities.

      The Saco River has long been a destination for artists, writers, and anglers. In the 1800s, landscape artists came to the area to capture the beauty of the Saco Valley, giving rise to the White Mountain School of Art. Benjamin Champney, a New Hampshire native, is considered by many to be the founder of the movement. Today you can still recognize the

      locations of many of his paintings, as the valley has changed little. John Greenleaf Whittier and Nathanial Hawthorne traveled extensively in the White Mountains and strived to capture their mystery and legend in prose and poetry. Over the centuries, anglers have also come to the Valley in search of the quality trout fishing.

      The Saco begins in historic Crawford Notch. From its source at tiny Saco Lake to the Maine border, it drops 1,500 feet in elevation in just 40 miles. Within New Hampshire, the watershed is roughly 427 square miles. Eighty percent of it is within the White Mountain National Forest. For much of its upper reaches, Route 302 parallels the river. This is one of New Hampshire’s most scenic drives. The upper river flows through a beautiful and rugged valley, which includes the historic Willey House. Across from this is the only dam—a tiny structure—on the Saco within New Hampshire.