Colossal New Hampshire Boulder Is the Biggest of Its Kind in North America

Have you ever just sat and marveled at how small we are as humans? We're each typically about five or six feet tall, which is nothing compared to a lot of things here on Earth. The size of the Earth then pales in comparison to the size of the Sun, and so on and so forth. You could go on forever about the complexity and sheer never-ending-ness of the universe, and personally, I find the whole thing both terrifying and humbling at the same time.

If you're looking for a way to humble yourself here on Earth, you can add a trip to this natural wonder to your to-do list this summer.

Madison Boulder in Madison, New Hampshire may just look like a really oversized rock, but it's in fact thought to be the largest glacial erratic in all of North America. Before we go anywhere, though, let's clarify what an erratic is, because I certainly didn't know before coming across Madison Boulder. According to Atlas Obscura, an erratic is "a boulder of a certain type of rock that was transported by glacial ice and deposited on bedrock of different type of rock." In the case of Madison Boulder, it was once part of a chunk of Conway granite and traveled on a glacier to its current spot, where it now sits on a deposit of Concord granite. Long explanation short, this rock is really old and really big, and we should care about it.

So just how colossal is this thing? Madison Boulder measures out at 23 feet tall, 85 feet long and 37 feet deep. If you're more of a visual learner, think about stacking three Shaqs on top of each other. That's roughly how tall Madison Boulder is, and that's still just the "smallest" of the boulder's measurements! Madison Boulder is also estimated to weigh almost 12 million pounds, so it's safe to say it's going to be sticking around for a while.

Interested in packing up the family to New Hampshire for the weekend and visiting Madison Boulder? You'll want to prep for just over a three hour car ride each way, but once you get there, this spectacle is only about a ten-minute trail walk from the parking lot.

"This thing is really a site to behold. It is really unique," YouTuber Eye For Sights said in a video documenting a 2019 trip to Madison Boulder. "Not really too many places you find a giant boulder like this where you can access it at such a close distance from a road or a park entrance. Sometimes you have to trek or hike for miles just to reach something like this, but this one's unique."

In the wise words of Spongebob Squarepants, "It's not just a boulder; It's a rock!"