These are not caves in the usual sense. There is no limestone and nothing dissolved anything. Polar Caves are talus caves: gaps and passages left between enormous granite boulders that broke off the cliff above and piled up during the last ice age. The rock is New Hampshire granite, the arrangement is accidental, and the result is a maze you walk through rather than a tunnel cut by water.
The name is earned. The deepest of the caves stays cold enough that snow and ice linger in it well into the summer, long after the White Mountains outside have warmed up, because cold air sinks into the boulder pile and has nowhere to go.
There are nine boulder caves in the park, linked by a system of boardwalks and stairs, lit and well marked, so it is genuinely doable with children. Some of the passages between boulders are tight enough to be named for the squeeze they demand, and there is a giant boulder maze alongside the caves, plus an animal park with European fallow deer and ducks and a mining game for children.
It was found in the summer of 1922 by Bernard Campbell, a student at Plymouth High School, who was out exploring with friends when they came across what looked like a small cave and discovered a whole network hidden under the trees. Campbell saw the potential straight away and took it to his science teacher, Henry Minot, who was impressed enough to help turn it into an attraction. It has been open ever since, which makes it one of the longest running family attractions in the state.
It is in Rumney, in the White Mountains region, and is seasonal, generally May through October.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
