Blue Mountain Trail to Blue Mountain Fire Tower

An exceptionally beautiful area and stunning views. The tower and summit were frozen and with ice along the upper parts of the trail on the rock scrambles, microspikes are a necessity. A great hike all around.

Actually icy spots on the trail today. Time to start getting the winter gear in the pack. Very enjoyable hike. Some steeps but not too long. Great views from the tower. The communication towers nearby detract from the natural beauty although it is nice to have a signal.

I loved this trail! It was tougher than I thought after reading its only 2 miles...ha ha. But the view was more than worth it! Amazing sunset from above!!!

Hiked this in early may. There was still snow, but it was warm (70s by afternoon). There had been a rainstorm the night before, causing the rocky ascent to be pure ice after the first mile. It was amazing at the top, though.

Gorgeous trail. I am in good shape and I definitely broke a sweat moving at a good pace. The grade is 44% sometimes. So, although it may seem short, it is not a quick hike to knock out with the family. If it is wet, you're going to need proper hiking shoes. All said and done, that view is incredible!

I admit that I'm not in my greatest physical shape. I underestimated how challenging this trail really is and I was humbled. I had brand new Lowa hiking boots and I'm glad I brought them. We had PERFECT weather. I do not believe this is "moderate" in scale. It leans more to the "difficult" scale. I live in California and hike the Sierras often. This hike was gorgeous once at the top. We saw 360°, it was windy, much cooler and the fire tower is the prize.

Really well worn trail. It's only 2 miles to the summit but it's a hell of a 2 miles. You definitely have to work to get to the top. When you get up into the cloud line the fungi become plentiful and exciting to observe. If it is cloudy and you are climbing up through a cloud the top gets really, really slippery. This makes the descent really difficult. I'm a late 20s male and slipped on to my butt at least 5 times. I would personally call this a more advanced trail. Some "moderate" trails on the app are super easy, but this was definitely not easy. I would personally not recommend this trail for your dogs or small children.

I imagine that on a clear day the views would be excellent. I knew it was cloudy while climbing up in the first place, so the views of the inside of the clouds were not a disappointment.

What is the point of hiking a sweaty 2 miles to zero visibility?!? We had thick fog that started the last mile and it was a very steep, slippery decent. I did it and will not be doing it again. I wish the view would have been there.

This was my first hike to the top and as stated by others, it is challenging but so worth it. You really must pay attention on the way up as well as down as it can get very slippery. I was told by other hikers that visibility can sometimes be limited due to clouds but on our particular hike, the views were breathtaking from the tower. Another surprise, the hundreds of dragonflies that met us when we reached the opening. I will definitely do this hike again.

Second time up Blue in July. Did this on a Monday morning. Trail was quite busy with families and summer camp groups. Trail etiquette was not very good with lots of candy/gum wrappers, groups with music playing on speakers, failure to yield trail to descending hikers. But I guess that comes with the territory, with a short hike to a fire tower so close to vacationland.

I dashed up the trail and made the summit in 57 minutes, and descended in just about 30 minutes.

Boy did this trail kick our butt. We hiked this trail the morning after hiking two high peaks. I thought it would be a nice easy hike before we headed back home, but the second mile and it gets really steep. Your legs really get a work out. It was such a great feeling reaching the summit. We were the only ones at the top and we spent about 30 mins just enjoying the breeze and the views from the fire tower. It was pretty foggy when we first reached the top, but cleared up a bit by the time we hiked back down.

The trail starts easy, though becomes quite strenuous and rocky further on, and is slippery when raining. Views from the peak are some of the best in the Adirondacks, and even when the trail is heavily populated, it never feels crowded. Personally, this is the one trail I'll keep coming back to again and again.

The first mile is easy, with some small elevation gains. The remainder of the hike is much more challenging. You have to pay attention to your footing as the rocks and roots will be with you most of the way up, and then back down! The views are amazing from the tower. The view from the summit is limited, but still great where the openings are. Making your way down is also challenging. The hike overall is a good time, as well as a good work out. My son and I took some time to take in the views at the summit, and have a snack, but we were in and out in about 4.5 hrs.

Great mountain climb, although rocky and steep the views and vistas are well worth the hike upwards. Nice 360 degree view in the tower looking outwards.

Hiked to this summit in the spring as part of the Adirondack Fire Tower challenge. This particular hike is a challenging one as Fire Tower hikes go. The last mile is very demanding and depending on the time of year can be a scramble of sorts. The only downside to this hike is that the tower has all kinds of communications equipment on it and new roads and building supporting them. The views of Blue Mountain though....are undeniably breathtaking!!!! While I was in the tower, a helicopter flew up to the summit and dropped a man off to work on the communications equipment. It really shook the tower while I was in it!

Blue Mountain has a commanding view of the surrounding territory, but only if you climb the fire tower. There is a view of Blue Mountain Lake just short of the summit, but 360-degree panoramas are available only from the top. The ascent is fairly steep and quite rocky, following a drainage channel with two ephemeral stream crossings, which were dry for our hike. In the second mile, you gain over 1000 vertical feet. There is minimal exposure and the trail is under canopy until you reach the summit block. Get there early if you want a parking spot; this is a very popular summer hike. Took us 2.5 hours, but we stopped for about 15 minutes on the way up for morale reasons. The descent is very quick; poles and hiking boots are recommended.

My wife and I are doing the fire tower challenge, and found this one to be harder than Pok O Moonshine, which was rated harder by one of the guidebooks. It’s a solid moderate hike with nearly 1,600 feet of elevation gain in 2 miles, and is very rocky. If you are not an experienced hiker, I would not recommend this one when the terrain is wet. The views were amazing from the top.

I often judge hikes based on whether I'd ever consider a re-hike. Blue mountain wouldn't be a re-hike. Glad I did it once but, you have to think about almost every foot step - boulders and potentially slippery rocks make the hike a bit of an ordeal.

Yes, there is a great view from the tower. Yes, it's a moderate hike in terms of elevation change bottom to top and any day out in the woods is a plus - but no, it wasn't a favorite hike. See for yourself.

Challenging hike but well worth it!

I hiked this trail yesterday (after hiking Bald Mountain). Definitely a tough trek up but absolutely worth the views!

This was great hike! We had our 7 year old and we had fun until 3/4 into it, at that point it started to be a bit long for the little one. However we all loved it and the fire tour was worth the sweat.

Intense hike. The trail is almost exclusively tree roots and boulders. Hiking this in the rain would be a very dangerous endeavor. The view from the top is almost unlike anything I have ever seen in the ADK. Complete 360 degree view from Fire Tower. There is another outlook near the radio tower as well as an observer cabin. Very tough but very worth it. We got there at 2pm on a beautiful Saturday and were the only ones on the summit.

Was more challenging than we anticipated, but well worth it once you reach the fire tower. We brought our pup with us and he absolutely loved it!

This was my final hike of the Indian Lake Challenge. Views are insanely cool in every direction, particularly north to the High Peaks. Absolutely loved the views...the rest, not so much.

Downers about this hike: way, way, way too many hikers and a lot of them have zero trail etiquette. Super rocky with both small rocks and large boulder slabs. It's also chock full of tree roots. It's just not an enjoyable hiking trail to me at all.

Must have been 30 plus cars at the trailhead parking lot when we finally arrived back to the car on a Sat. afternoon at about 1:30.

Go early!

intense

Fun hike that ends with a fire watch tower at the end. Be warned, it is very steep with a lot of elevation gain and can be treacherous to go down when wet. Bring plenty of water.

There is a slow incline as showed on the topographic map. There are a few areas where there are planks of wood to walk across. The incline escalates slowly to sheets of rock with water running down it, making it somewhat difficult to walk on. We used paths on the side of the rock sheets in the forest, it made the ascent easier but it was still a big climb. It might only be a 2 mile hike up the mountain but it certainly doesn’t make it easy on you. Once you notice the sheets of rock turn into dirt, it will flatten out to a simple walkway through some pine trees. You can definitely feel the wind when you get to the top, and we went on a sunny day. The views were breathtaking. If you have access to the fire tower, you have a full 360 degree view of the surrounding area. So yes, the view is definitely worth the hike.

Intense and strenuous, by far not an easy mountain to climb. This summit from the fire tower is absolutely incredible. Pictures couldn’t even capture how beautiful it was. I would highly recommend Blue Mountain. My highest peak so far and Another fire tower challenge completed.

Great hike, but trail is very icy and a lot of snow! Use caution and maybe yak tracks!

It was a great hike on the blue mountain trail today. After about .0.6miles, the trail was covered with ice and snow but not very wet. There was about 2 feet snow on the trail near and at the top, but the slide section of the trail was covered with the soft surface ice. It was fantastic view at the top!