Lake Winnipesaukee

The largest lake in New Hampshire, Lake Winnipesaukee covers 72 square miles with a maximum depth of 180 feet, and has 274 islands. It has been a tourist destination for more than a century, especially for residents escaping the summer heat of Boston and New York City.

Lake Winnipesaukee is well known for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try to guess the date that the Mount Washington, a large cruise ship that carries tourists around the lake, can safely leave her port on Saunders Bay and motor to four other ports. Since records began being kept in 1851, ice-out has happened as early as March 29 and as late as May 12, although 90 percent of the time it is declared during April.

The Winnipesaukee River flows west from the lake and joins the Pemigewasset River in the town of Franklin to form the Merrimack River, which flows south into Massachusetts.