Green Mountain Fire Tower and Hanson Top
It was the bluebirdest of days. I was meeting some friends of mine for a quick hike up to Green Mountain. At the summit there is a fire tower that I have been wanting to visit.
When I arrived I noticed that parking is very limited along the road. I was the first one there and my friends arrived a short time after.
We started down class 6 road for a short ways toward the High Watch Trail head. From here the trail climbs gently for about a mile then starts to get steeper.
| Date: | 3-8-2021 |
| Location: | Effingham, NH |
| Distance: | 4 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 1,050′ |
| Total Time: | 4 hr 3 min |
| Parking: | 10+ cars |
| Difficultly Rating: | Moderate |
I was surprised to see the trail in such good shape all the way to the top. I thought for sure that there would be some real sketchy ice sections.
The trail climbs through beech forests, hardwood forests and finally some evergreen forests toward the top.
We had great views throughout the trees of the Northern Presidentials against a bluer than blue background of a sky.
Once we got to the summit we could see the tower. There were a couple picnic tables around and by now the sun was feeling wonderful.
The views through up on the tower were amazing. Views in every direction. We could see all the way to the ocean. After a few pictures I headed back down and we had a quick snack before heading over to Hanson Top.
As we made our way down the road we came the Hanson Top junction. This trail was not as packed out as the main trail but was still very stable. Along the way we came across a beautiful Yellow Birch. We all marveled at how golden it looked.
We made it to Hanson’s Top and then went a little further to some ledges. At the ledges there were more great views. We stopped and hung out for a bit and enjoyed the warmth of the sun again.
The hike back to the fire tower seemed to go very quickly. We continued on down the mountain doing some intermittent butt sledding. We came across a few hikers on the trail and all were very friendly.
This hike was a lot of fun. A lot of the reviews say this is a steep and difficult trail but I thought was moderate at most.
