Brookline, New Hampshire: Andres Sculpture Park - Forest of "Huh?"

Artist Paul Andres collection of sculpture from around the world is spread along wooded trails on Big Bear Mountain. Mostly abstract and cryptic pieces, interesting to experience in the forest setting.

The Andres Institute of Art is located on Big Bear Mountain, which is owned by Paul Andres. While his private residence and studio are on the top of the mountain, he recreated the rest of the grounds as a public sculpture park, featuring sculptures from artists around the world, scattered about on wooded hiking trails. The trails are short, easy going, and fairly well marked, but the real highlights are the sculptures. While most feature stone (the grounds contain old quarry sites), they vary in size, material, and subject. Most are very abstract, bringing out the "huh??" in most people.

Best of all, the park is free, and is open every day from dawn to dusk. You can also print out a map of the grounds from their website (andresinstitute.org), however, a word of warning about their approximated time lengths of the trails: My husband and I hiked around here for about an hour (with plenty of stops to take pictures) and saw about half of the sculptures. Unless you walk very slowly and/or spend a lot of time at each sculpture, it will take you much less time than the map suggests. [Abby, 05/25/2011]