98 FOREST OUTINGS 



tracted picnic anyway, so it is practical to throw the figures together, and 

 say that on the 161 national forests there are now some 53,000 free outdoor 

 recreational sets, not nearly enough to supply the thronging demand. 



These 17 national-forest camps in New Hampshire offer 2,000 sets, 

 between them; and of this number Dolly Copp Forest Camp, alone, has 

 1,000. Dolly Copp, at the height of its season, is probably the least peaceful 

 national-forest camp in the whole country, yet people keep flocking there 

 and liking it more and more. The camp population from June to Septem- 

 ber runs around 74,000 for the season. The problem of its administra- 

 tion is fairly comparable with that of the administration of a boom town, 

 and when the more or less resident throng is swelled by holiday transients, 

 squirming for a swim or a day's outing, the scene and situation are not 

 entirely idyllic. Last year's (1938) Labor Day crowd at Dolly Copp 

 totaled 2,600 a peak. "It was like Coney Island without the chute the 

 chutes," says the resident forest guard. 



But here as elsewhere, Labor Day usually brings the peak load. There 

 is no time of the year more gracious and wondrous than the fall months 

 here in the White Mountains. September and October bring, to be sure, 

 their bursts of chilly rain, but most of the time the air and sunlight are 

 sparkling clear, and the colors of the foliage are indescribably beautiful 

 with the brilliant reds and yellows in the intervales contrasted with the 

 fresh white snow on the upper slopes. The maximum coloration, in point 

 of brilliance, comes generally during the first week of October. Special 

 tours are formed then to view the height of the spectacle. But to many the 

 best time to be here is after that, with the colors dimming, hazily, and the 

 tourist-load on these mountains so thinned and scattered as to be hardly 

 noticeable. There are, moreover, practical considerations to support the 

 choice of a late-fall vacation. The rates of resorts are generally lower, and 

 the free camps are uncrowded. In many places they are almost unoccupied 

 from Labor Day until winter sets in. 



THREE PARTIES ... Of the three parties lingering at Dolly Copp Forest 

 Camp this sharp September evening, one has tentage, one has a combina- 

 tion tent-and-trailer outfit, and one has it rigged to sleep in the back of the 



