Our most recent
park adventure took us on a hike up Roundtop Mountain, the mountain behind the Museum,
you know, the one with the kind of round top.
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| Roundtop |
The Civilian Conservation Corps
built the Roundtop Mountain Trail as part of their east side trail system. The
trail has long since been forgotten. Jan and I have hiked in the park since 1983,
and the trail, to our knowledge, has never been marked during that time. That
means it has been lost, at least, three decades. Likely the 1970s since the trail was marked or used,
but probably longer than that.
The CCC maps
show a circle around the mountain and a pigtail trail up to the top from the
main circle. We spent several hours trying to find the old trail and did
discover parts of it.
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| CCC trail steps northeast of museum |
On the south side of the mountain a rock slide appears to
have covered a section of 100 feet or more. My guess is the trail was let go at
this point of the slide and unmarked and unused since that time.
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| The trail ( above the leaning cedar) southwest side of mountain |
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| The road near the top |
But two
senior adventures like my wife and myself wouldn’t be deterred by a little
landslide. Well, yes we were, but we still made it to the top. The old road
that starts on the northeast side of the mountain makes a fine trail. It took
only about twenty minutes to reach the top using the old road and the hike was invigorating.
Give it a
try, this one is fun, not too difficult and the view is spectacular.
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| The view from the top - worth the hike |
One
warning – The first one
hundred yards are deeply rutted, so step carefully, once you reach the south
side of the mountain the trail is fine.
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