Blue Mountain (Fire Tower) trail, located near Blue Mountain Lake, is a 4.5 mile challenging/hard hike with amazing views. It's an "out and back" trail, which means it starts and ends at the same location and you follow a singe trail to an end point, then return along the same route. Blue Mountain has an elevation gain of 1,550+ feet, with a total elevation of 3,750 feet.

Blue Mountain starts out easy but after about a mile in, it starts to get very steep and challenging. There are lots of large rock slabs which can become slippery if it has recently rained. Like many mountains and hikes, there are extensive tree roots, large areas with mossy patches and congested, small rock sections, so be careful. There are several boardwalk spots as well with a few streams. There are some views along the way. At the top, the view is expansive. Depending on conditions, you can see some of the High Peaks, Blue Mountain Lake, Lake Eaton, Raquette Lake and more.

A survey tower was originally built on Blue Mountain in the 1870s. When that collapsed, a wooden tower was built in 1907 by the owner of the Blue Mountain Hotel for guest use. In 1911 it became part of the fire observation program.

In 1917 the wooden tower was replaced. It is 35 feet tall and is made of galvanized metal. It was one of the last towers in operation, closing in 1990. It was the first fire tower to be restored in the Adirondack Forest Preserve and that process began in 1994. From what I understand, the cab of the fire tower is closed and locked, but you can still climb the stairs for a great view. There is an old observer cabin nearby as well, but I don't believe it is open to the public.

Blue Mountain is a very popular hike. According to multiple sources it gets over 15,000 visitors per year. But I learned during this write up that most of Blue Mountain is actually private land, including the trails. Every year the land owner grants permission for trail usage. There are roads that lead up as well, but those are not for public use.

One other neat fact is that there was a Cold War radar facility on top of Blue Mountain, used for national defense. Today there are large concrete slabs left where it was positioned. Some of the information used for this write up was gathered from the website www.adirondackjourneys.com.

Blue Mountain is part of several hiking challenges including the Hamilton County Fire Tower Challenge and the Adirondack Fire Tower Challenge.