Mount Cardigan - 3,155'

Hike date: 05/15/2021

Description: Mount Cardigan has one of the best views in the western part of New Hampshire due to its bare summit that offers panoramic 360 degree views. There is also a fire tower at the summit! From the ledges of the summit, the best views are to the north, with Firescrew (a Cardigan subpeak) immediately visible and many peaks of the White Mountains further beyond (you’ll be able to see Mount Moosilauke looming behind Firescrew, Mount Lafayette and the rest of Franconia Ridge, the very distant Presidential Range, the pointy Tripyramids, and countless other 4,000 footers and smaller peaks). Looking south from the summit affords views towards other Cardigan subpeaks (like Rimrock and Orange), Mount Kearsarge, a faint Mount Monadnock, and views into Vermont as you turn west.

Be sure to check out our YouTube video of our hike to Mount Cardigan which you can find here!

Trails Used: Ascend via the Manning Trail to the summit of Firescrew. From there, take the Mowglis Trail (South) to reach the summit of Mount Cardigan. Descend via the Clark Trail to the Cathedral Forest Trail to the Holt Trail to get back on the Manning Trail. Continue on Manning Trail back to the trailhead.

Trail Summary: This counter-clockwise loop will first take you to Cardigan’s northern subpeak, Firescrew, before heading over to Mount Cardigan. It is a very scenic route, with lots of ledges that have incredible views! Parking for this hike is at the AMC Cardigan Lodge; we arrived at the trailhead just after 8 am on a beautiful Saturday and got one of the last spots in the lot! Despite the “No Parking” signs along the road, there was a long line of cars parked on the road when we returned. Overall, this is a moderate hike with good terrain and decent grades; there are a number of steeper slab sections that add a bit of spice to the hike!

You’ll start out on the Manning Trail, which is accessed at the end of the parking lot near the lodge. As you head into the woods, you’ll pass a number of campsites; we really want to come back some time and camp here as they looked really nice! The half mile section of the Manning Trail to the first junction with the Holt Trail is basically flat - a nice warm up! At the junction, the trail heads into the woods and starts climbing more moderately; the terrain becomes more rocky mixed with roots. There are many junctions with backcountry ski trails along the way, and we thought to ourselves it must be pretty awesome to ski here! As you make your way up the trail, you’ll eventually encounter one large scramble that has a nice view toward Mount Cardigan after it. We really enjoyed the section of trail beyond this point because the woods were covered in moss and there were tons of HUGE boulders along the trail. After the boulder section, the trail gets rougher and steeper as you find yourself starting to scramble up exposed slab. There are tons of ledges along this ridge with awesome views to the north (which also make for great spots to take a break!). Continue winding up the slab and you’ll soon find yourself at the summit of Firescrew with Mount Cardigan straight ahead. This is also where the junction with the Mowglis Trail is. From the trailhead to this junction, you’ll have hiked roughly 2.6 miles and gained about 1,600 feet of elevation so far.

After a short break on Firescrew, it was on towards Mount Cardigan! At the junction with the Mowglis Trail, you’ll want to take a left, heading towards the south direction of the trail. In this short section between the two peaks, which is roughly half a mile long, you’ll lose about 100 feet of elevation before gaining about 200 feet of elevation as you make the final push towards the summit of Mount Cardigan. It’s fairly easy hiking in this part, except for the final climb up to the summit cone where you’ll head up steep slab. Before you know it, you’ll see the fire tower peaking out in front of you and you’ll have reached the summit area with its wide open views. As mentioned in the description above, you’ll have views of the Cardigan subpeaks, the White Mountains to the north, Vermont and its peaks to the west, and a seemingly endless amount of smaller peaks. You can’t climb into the actual fire tower, but you can go part way up the ladder if you desire. The sun was shining, so we laid out on the smooth rock and soaked up some Vitamin D (which also led to us getting sunburned - don’t forget the sunscreen on these crystal clear days!).

After a long break at the top, we got ready to make our descent down back to the start. You’ll want to head south past the fire tower and make your way down the wide ledges on the white blazed Clark Trail (which bears left coming down from the summit). The descent starts out easy, then becomes steeper as you make your way down the summit slab. Shortly, you’ll pass by an old cabin, presumably used for those who manned the fire tower. Beyond here, Clark Trail eases up and offers a more moderate descent as you enter back into the woods. You’ll pass a nice viewpoint on the left; after this, the trail is less rocky and offers a great gradual descent. At the junction with Cathedral Forest Trail, we took a left and headed down into some nice open woods with solid trails. After some time, you will find yourself at “Grand Junction”, an area where several trails intersect. At this junction, you’ll want to hop on the Holt Trail. It’s a good thing we are going down and not up, as the upper portion of the Holt Trail makes a very steep ascent to the summit; it’s marked with a warning sign… maybe we’ll try it next time! After maybe 100 feet on the Holt Trail, there is a nice trail-side waterfall that you can make a quick downhill trip to check out. Continuing back, you’ll eventually come to another junction where you can take the Manning Trail back to your car. From Grand Junction to the trailhead, it’s a quick and easy 1.2 mile descent back to the lodge.

We really loved this loop! The trails were very well maintained and a nice mix of moderate to challenging terrain, the views were incredible, and the woods were very pretty. We will definitely be coming back to this area again to hike the many other trails that are here!

Alternative routes:

We have not yet done any alternative routes to the summit of Mount Cardigan. This page will be updated once we have!

We have not yet climbed Mount Cardigan in the winter, but once we do, we will update this page with our full report!

Questions? Comments? Want to share your take on this hike? Get in touch with us using the contact page!

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