Another beautiful day. Decided we were up for a minor challenge. Parts of the West Ridge Trail are steep and rocky and Kelley would have to work around several spots but is a very pretty hike.
We started from the pumping station and the first part is through woods along the pond and then a gradual ascent before the rocky part.
Looking back down the trail
You soon start to get views of Long Pond below and Western Mountains across the way. Kelley worked her way around all the big rocks in that section of the trail without help from me.
There is a fire tower on the summit but you cannot climb it.
A view from the summit
We then backtracked to take the outer Beech Mountain Trail down.
I think it has better views. This is a 3 shot pano- please click it twice to get the full size version.
The trail ends at the parking lot- not open because of the politics in Washington. As we were walking across to the Valley Trail to get back, Kelley spotted the Beech Cliff Trail and wanted to take it. It's a short walk to the cliff and this view.
The Valley Trail took us back to the pond where we were parked. This is an easy trail , mostly, through lush mossy woods. Back at the pond there was one last swim
Another nice hike though it seems all the nice days have made things very dry and the fire danger is listed as high. 2 1/4 hours
John,
ReplyDeleteKelley has been in Long Pond twice in less than a week; she must be very happy.
While on Beech Mountain, have you ever gone off trail and found the two stone seats overlooking Long Pond?
Thanks for commenting Christopher. Kelley is happy- much more water today- the other Long Pond and harbor Brook . I don't know about the stone seats. Can you describe their location?
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteThe seats, which are not visible from the trail, are on one of the long north/south granite ledges along the path, after th trail leaves the woods and before it turns left towards the final approach to the summit and fire tower.
Thanks Christopher- I assume you are coming from the pond as we did? ( the left turn made me question)
ReplyDeleteJohn, I misread your map. I meant coming from the Beech Mtn. parking lot. When you get to the open ledges overlooking Long Pond, you need only to wander around off the trail for a bit to find them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarification- I thought you must mean coming from that direction- I think that stretch of ledge is one of the nicest views in the park.
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