Color Group:Blue D1B1
Location of Cardigan
Cardigan Mountain is about one hour and ten minutes north of Hopkinton, NH. Cardigan Mt. is in Alexandria and Orange NH. Which are both in the northwest corner of New Hampshire. The coordinates of the summit are 43.64890 degrees north, and 71.9139 degrees west. The lodge’s coordinates are 43.6498 degrees north, and 71.8779 degrees west.
Place Paragraphs of Cardigan
The top of Cardigan mountain is lots and lots of rock. On the summitt, there are no trees but on the way up there are beautiful forests. There are three different kinds: Northern Hardwood forests, Boreal forests and Alpine forests. Northern Hardwood forests are typically seen towards the bottom of the mountain where as Alpine forests are usually seen more towards the top. And that means Boreal forests are in the middle of the three. On the summit of Mt. Cardigan, you can see another mountain, Mt. Firescrew. Mt. Firescrew has a bare rock summit just like Mt. Cardigan. I don’t believe there is a geodetic survey marker on Mt. Firescrew but I do know that there was one on Mt. Cardigan. The hike up Cardigan Mountain is a very fun hike.
On the top of Mt. Cardigan, there is a bunch of cairns. Cairns are pretty much just stacks of different sized rocks. Cairns are cultural geography because they are not actually made by nature, they are made by humans. There is also a fire tower, as shown in the picture to the right. In 1855, Mt. Cardigan’s summit was burnt down in a forest fire and in 1904, a wooden fire tower was built. But in 1924, it was replaced with a steel one. Rock cairns and the fire tower are not the only cool things about Cardigan Mountain, on the way up (or down) there is a rock cliff called JP ledge. The view from JP ledge is amazing. You can see other mountains and you can even see when the forests change from deciduous to coniferous! Everything about Cardigan mountain is amazing and everyone should have a chance to climb it.
We were at Mt. Cardigan for three days: October second, third, and fourth. I was in session two so we left on the Wednesday second and came back on Friday the fourth.