You Are Here: Wantastiquet Mountain

I headed over to far western New Hampshire.. actually drove through Brattleboro, VT to get to the trailhead. Today's destination was Wantastiquet Mountain via the Wantastiquet Mountain Trail, which also marks the start of the Wantastiquet Monadnock Trail, which I will complete in bits and pieces. Parking is in a small lot at the end of Mountain Road in Hinsdale. I had read there was a decent sized waterfall right at the trailhead and knowing we have had a lot of rain recently, I hoped it would be flowing. I could hear and even just see it from where I parked my car! This week I loaded on the sunscreen and bug spray and headed out. Literally feet from the parking lot is Wantastiquet Falls. I've read it's seasonal. A short scramble up from the trail, there is a decent view of the falls.. a little obstructed with some trees. There was some sort of machinery across the river in Brattleboro that was repetitively clanging that took away from the ambience of a lovely waterfall (I couldn't imagine living in that area if it's a regular occurrence.. thankfully it stopped about 15 minutes into my hike.) Wantastiquet Mountain Trail basically follows a service road up the side of the mountain to a communications tower. It switchbacks many times, but is still quite steep and rocky in places. Today the trail alternated between being very wet and nice and dry. They've done a good job with trail maintenance to try and control runoff the best they can. The leaves are coming in fast on the trees, but I still had peekaboo views over the Connecticut River and Brattleboro down in the valley. About a tenth from the communications tower is a side path to a wonderful overlook with a monument rock. Between the overlook and the tower is the true summit of Wantastiquet Mountain. Looking at Peakbagger, I could see it wasn't too far off trail, so I did a little adventuring and bushwhacked over 3 spots that looked like they could be the high point. I didn't see anything indicating which it was, but my watch recorded the correct elevation, so I'm calling that a success. Coming back out to the trail, I followed some blue boundary blazes, which were a lot more direct than the back and forth route I had taken in to the high point. The service road ends at the tower and the trail continues down beyond. There is a sign, but was a tad confusing as there is an arrow pointing left as well as a straight arrow to Mine Ledge/Indian Pond. Go straight and the trail is blazed with orange flag tape. It's mostly easy to follow, but a couple times I was grateful for the flagging as I wasn't quiet sure. It becomes much more technical with a steep little descent from Wantastiquet into a gulch and then a steep little ascent to Mine Ledge. I didn't go out to Mine Ledge again as I had seen there were people there and I was just there a couple weeks ago. I hit my turnaround point and retraced my steps the way I had come up. I have enjoyed this area, it's well maintained and has some really pretty view spots! Now if only the black flies hadn't decided they were ready to return ;)

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