Apple Cider Celebration at The Rocks ~ Columbus Day Weekend

There’s so much to celebrate this time of year at The Rocks – Tag-Your-Own tree season, the opening of our shops, the vibrant colors of fall foliage filling the landscape at the farm and on the surrounding hills.

This year we’re adding one more thing to celebrate: apples!

The Rocks will host our first-ever Apple Cider Celebration over the three days of Columbus Day Weekend, October 10-12, and it will be a delight for the senses! The kaleidoscopic colors of autumn, the taste of freshly pressed apple cider, horse-drawn wagon rides through the farm, and a program on pruning apple trees.

Beyond the myriad rows of Christmas trees growing through the fields at The Rocks, there are nearly 200 apple trees. These are all heirloom varieties and are pruned for the benefit of the many species of wildlife who live on the farm and rely on apples as a staple of their fall diet: deer, bear, coyote, turkey, moose, porcupine and others.

Both The Rocks Marketplace and the Gift Shop – chockfull of gifts, decorations, and the works of many local artisans – will be open during the Apple Cider Celebration, which will run each day of the long weekend from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Wagon rides will be offered Sunday and Monday. The apple tree pruning presentation will be Saturday at 11 a.m. Guests are invited to explore the network of trails at The Rocks, bring a picnic lunch to enjoy in the formal gardens or elsewhere on the Estate, visit the interactive New Hampshire Maple Experience museum, and even “tag” a Christmas tree in the field. (For more on The Rocks’ Tag-Your-Own tree season, check out our last Blog post!) 

For those who want to continue celebrating apple cider, we’ll also have small cider presses available for sale. Sip cider, shop for the holidays, take in the colors of fall…the Apple Cider Celebration has it all!

Fall Foliage and Christmas Trees at The Rocks

Looking for a fun fall foliage excursion? Thinking ahead to the holiday season and want to get started on your holiday prep? You'll find all that and more at The Rocks Estate this fall!

The Rocks will be open weekends from October 3^rd - October 18^th for tag-your-own Christmas tree seekers, holiday shopping, and – of course – enjoying the annual autumnal burst of color.

The Rocks' Christmas tree fields and gift shops will be open Saturdays and Sundays, October 3^rd -October 18^th, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tree-taggers should bring their own decorations and some personal flair to “tag” their perfect tree in the field. Ornaments, ribbons, streamers: it’s all great for reserving your favorite tree until cutting time. These early birds may return once The Rocks opens for the winter season to cut and purchase tagged trees. (The Rocks will be open daily, except Thanksgiving Day, from Nov. 21-Dec. 24.)

The Rocks will again run a Facebook contest, where tree taggers are invited to post photos of their tagged trees, then vote on a favorite. The photo with the most votes will earn its taggers a free tree.  

Both The Rocks Marketplace and the Gift Shop will be open to shoppers during tag-your-own weekends. The Gift Shop shelves are loaded with Rocks maple syrup, ornaments, decorations, and tee-shirts. The Marketplace is filled with an array of locally-crafted and U.S.A-made items, from home goods and holiday decorations to hand-made soaps and loads of Christmas ornaments. New this year are a collection of crafting kits for children, created by New Hampshire company Harrisville Designs, as well as several lines of locally-crafted jewelry. Other offerings by local crafters and artisans extend from chocolates and preserves to handmade soaps and pottery.

Columbus Day Weekend (October 10-12), The Rocks will also host an Apple Cider Celebration, featuring cider-making, horse-drawn wagon rides through the farm, and an apple tree pruning program. (Check our online calendar, or stay tuned here for more details!)

Visit The Rocks this fall to take in the colors, find a perfect Christmas tree, and enjoy the holiday spirit that permeates the air year-round on Christmas Lane!

Bus tours rolling into The Rocks Estate

Tour buses rolling along the back roads and state highways are a common sight all around New England this time of year. As the leaves transform the landscape into a breathtaking medley of colors, people come from all over to take in the beautiful fall foliage. And sometimes they come by the tour bus load.

The road to The Rocks is bathed in fall color!

While The Rocks is known most popularly as a Christmas tree farm, we’re also the North Country Conservation & Education Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. As part of our education mission, The Rocks offers natural history programs and tours year-round, as well as working with other area businesses and attractions to boost the region’s economy

Yes, there is more to The Rocks than the neat rows of Christmas trees and picturesque views.

When bus tours first started finding their way to The Rocks, the passengers would generally get off the bus, take a quick look around, snap a few photos and reload for the next destination. Oh, how things have changed!

This year The Rocks will welcome a total of 52 bus tours to the Estate, with groups selecting from a variety of natural history programs to enjoy during their visit. These range from the New Hampshire Maple Experience and tours of the Estate’s formal gardens to presentations on some of New Hampshire’s most famous wildlife – moose and bear.

Fifty-two busloads of visitors translates to more than 2,500 people touring The Rocks and neighboring businesses and attractions. From The Rocks, buses often roll on to the Cog Railway at Mt. Washington or Littleton’s celebrated Main Street. Rocks Estate staff members and volunteers also tout other area attractions like the Brick Store in Bath and Harman’s Cheese & Country Store in Sugar Hill. 

Whether you come by bus, car, or motorcycle, we hope you’ll visit The Rocks Estate and the surrounding area this fall. While you’re here, we invite you to jump into the holidays by Tagging-Your-Own Christmas tree in our fields and visiting our fun and festive shops!

Time to Tag-Your-Own Christmas Tree at The Rocks!

We know that for many of you, it’s never too early to start thinking about the holidays! To help all you Christmas junkies out there, we’re opening our fields (and shops!) at The Rocks Estate during weekends from September 27 through October 18 so you can come tag-your-own tree in the fields and get an early start on your holiday shopping.

Tag-Your-Own Christmas tree seekers are welcome to roam the farm in the search of that perfect tree. We encourage Tag-Your-Own folks to come to The Rocks equipped with lots of colorful decorations so you can claim your Christmas tree in style – and be able to find it easily when you return to cut it later. Tag-Your-Owners may come back to The Rocks to cut and purchase their tagged trees anytime from November 22^nd through December 24^th.

Autumn is an amazingly beautiful time to visit The Rocks, as the farm and surrounding hillsides are bursting with fall color. While you’re here looking for a tree, we invite you to enjoy the scenery and some of the other fall fun offered at the farm:

* Get a jump start on your holiday shopping at The Rocks Marketplace and Gift Shop – two great shops offering a festive array of gifts, decorations, and personal treasures, including a plethora of locally- and USA-made items.

* Take a self-guided tour of our interactive New Hampshire Maple Experience, complete with a working sugarhouse and museum.

* Explore some of the beautiful trails on the historic property, weaving through colorful forests, along old stone walls, and past beautifully restored buildings. Bring along your smart phone to gain glimpses of past and present activities at The Rocks with our mobile tour.

Let the holiday season begin... We'll see you at The Rocks this fall!

Bus Touring at The Rocks Estate

While winter – and finding the perfect Christmas tree – is the most famous season at The Rocks Estate, fall foliage season is quickly catching on, as visitors enjoy the kaleidoscopic colors of autumn at the Estate and on the surrounding hills and mountains. Often, the fall visitors arrive via tour bus, and it used to be that the bus would pull in, the tourists would unload, take a few photos, climb back on board, and head to the next pretty destination.

Now, more buses (nearly 60 this year!) are coming to The Rocks, and the bus tourists are staying longer and experiencing The Rocks more fully – whether through guided tours of the property or expert-led discussions of the wildlife living in and around this historic 1,400-acre property, now the North Country Conservation & Education Center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

Each group chooses a personalized visit to the Estate and is invited to select from a list of natural history programs. The most popular of these is a visit to the New Hampshire Maple Experience and Museum, housed in one of the many history buildings at The Rocks that have been carefully restored for modern use. The Maple Experience includes a virtual tour of the maple sugaring process, which happens in the spring when the sap flows through the sugar maple trees at The Rocks and is collected to make maple syrup. (Visitors are also welcome to visit the gift shop, where they’ll find maple syrup, along with an array of other great gifts!)

A group of visitors from the Midwest at The Rocks.

Other popular group programs at The Rocks include the moose & bear talks led by the Estate’s manager, Nigel Manley, who is an avid outdoorsman, and the Gardens of Yesteryear program, which uses hand-colored slides from 1933 to illustrate the timeless beauty of the formal gardens still maintained at The Rocks.

Whether you’re arriving via tour bus, or coming with your family to enjoy a picnic and tag-your-own tree, we hope you’ll visit The Rocks this fall and enjoy the beauty of autumn in New Hampshire!

Tag-Your-Own Christmas tree at The Rocks Estate – and make it gaudy!

Dig out the Christmas tree decorations… tag-your-own tree season opens at The Rocks Estate this weekend! And with the varied colors of fall foliage popping, there’s no more beautiful time to visit the farm – and get a jump start on the holiday season.

The Rocks will be open for tag-your-own weekends from September 22^nd through October 22^nd. During that time, the two holiday shops at The Rocks will also be open, as will the extensive trails system on the property and self-guided tours of the interactive New Hampshire Maple Experience. As always, leashed pets are welcome to accompany their humans at The Rocks.

Tag-your-own tree seekers are encouraged to select a tree in the field and decorate it in their own unique style using ornaments, ribbons, and whatever else it takes to distinguish that tree as their own. The showier, the better – and easier to find come cutting time. Customers should return after the farm opens for the season, between November 17^th and December 24^th, to cut and pay for their tagged Christmas tree. 

To celebrate tag-your-own season, The Rocks is inviting customers to participate in a “Gaudiest Tree” contest on Facebook by posting a photo of their tagged tree to The Rocks Estate’s Facebook page. The tree with the most “likes” will be presented to that customer free of charge. Visit The Rocks Facebook page for details. 

The Marketplace at The Rocks and the farm store will both be open during tag-your-own weekends. The Marketplace features an array of goods from various New England artisans, as well as Fair Trade items, from pet goods and ornaments to jewelry and home goods. The Rocks farm store is filled with local maple syrup, along with jams and jellies, Rocks t-shirts and mugs, ornaments and decorations.

Whether you’re looking for your perfect tree, hoping to get an early start to your holiday shopping, or just want to enjoy the kaleidoscope of autumn colors and surrounding mountain vistas, we hope to see you at The Rocks this fall!