Moose, Bear, and the Neighbors — a stop on the Kancamagus Highway.
Let's talk about who else uses this road, because sooner or later you'll meet one of them.
The big one is moose. There are moose through this whole forest, and a bull can stand better than six feet at the shoulder and weigh more than a thousand pounds. Here's the part people don't expect: they are genuinely hard to see. A moose is very dark, its eyes don't reflect headlights the way a deer's do, and its body rides up ABOVE your headlight beam — so at night what you see first is legs, far too late. Dawn and dusk are the dangerous hours, especially in spring when they come to the roadside for the salt left over from winter plowing. If you see one, slow right down and stay in the car. Give it room and it'll amble off.
Black bears are here too, and they are shy, and they are also completely shameless about food. Never leave a cooler or a bag of chips out at a picnic area; a bear that learns cars mean sandwiches becomes a bear that has to be destroyed. That is the whole reason for the fuss about food storage.
Beyond them: white-tailed deer, red fox, coyote, beaver in the still water, and pine marten back in the deep spruce. Overhead, watch for broad-winged hawks kettling on a warm afternoon, and listen at dusk for a barred owl — the one that sounds like it's asking who cooks for you. If you want to actually SEE wildlife rather than hope for it, the trick is simple: pull over, shut the engine off, and be quiet for five minutes. The forest comes back to life the moment you stop being a car.