Mount Monadnock is located in Jaffrey, NH and is one of the most popular hiking spots in the entire world. With that said we knew that we'd need to go on a weekday in order to avoid the worst of the crowds. Good thing we did because even in the middle of the week the mountain was very crowded, particularly with groups of kids running wild.
The drive up to the mountain was an uneventful two hours and after paying one of the rangers our $10 fee and getting a map we managed to get the one open spot left in the first main parking lot. After gaining about 250' in elevation in the first half mile we can to the fork where the trail splits in to the White Dot trail and White Cross trail. The ranger we spoke to on the way in recommended going up the White Dot trail and down the White Cross trail, partly as their way of helping to manage the hiker traffic on the mountain. I can't think of another place where the rangers have to worry about traffic flow on a mountain. These two trails are the most direct route to the summit which was about 1.9 miles each way. After the split in the trail the mountain began to get steeper and rockier. We passed a few people as we climbed up the trail, and eventually caught up to a fairly large group of kids where the trail began to become more sheer granite and dangerous. Whoever was in charge of those kids was nowhere to be seen, so we had to be careful going around them as they seemed oblivious to everything. This mountain seems a little too dangerous for pre-teen kids to be goofing around on in my humble opinion.
The top of the mountain is very open and rocky. Mount Monadnock offered breathtaking 360 degree views on a perfect New England summer day. In the absence of trees the trail is marked primarily with cairns (large piles of rocks), but all you really need to do is look towards the peak and head in that direction over the open rocks. After getting a few obligatory pictures of the spectacular view we headed away from the summit for lunch to escape the crowd.
The descent down the White Cross trail was a little tricky in spots where the rock was smooth and a bit slippery. We didn't have any issues, but it would have been much more difficult if there was rain making the rocks even more slick.
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| One of the cairns marking the way |
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| Another of the cairns |
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| Angela and her pink sunglasses admiring the view |
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| View of the summit from a few hundred feet below |
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| One of the only shots I could get from the summit without any people in view |
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