Belknap Mountain Dual Adventure - Plane Crash Wreckage & Fire Tower

We drove to Belknap Mountain on 6/11/16 with two missions for the day - first was to climb the summit's fire tower (#3 of the 15 in NH we plan to climb), and second was to locate the remains of a 1972 plane crash somewhere on the mountainside. Because it was summertime the gate to Carriage Road was open, which saved us over a mile of hiking as we were then able to drive to the upper parking lot. From there the climb to the summit was .8 miles of fairly smooth hiking, and along the way we met this interesting, but injured, little critter.

After moving him to safety (and also convincing Madison that he wasn't a toy some kid dropped) we continued to the tower. The wind was gusting up to 30 mph that day, but after much persuasion we finally managed to get all of us on top for a group picture. Tina might look relaxed but she actually left finger indents on the steel railing.

Logan on the other hand had no such fear, insisting on returning to the top a second time for a solo picture.

Our first mission complete, we now began the second and harder one. We believed the plane crash to be about 2-tenths of a mile down the backside of the mountain. I've not yet found any actual news articles about the crash, but from what I've pieced together through message forums it was a private plane that crashed in 1972 due to inclement weather. It wasn't until a year later that the site was discovered and 2 bodies recovered, after local residents went searching for the source of a reflection they saw from below.

Shortly after leaving the tower we found a small ribbon tied to a tree, marking the unofficial path to the site. It was a steep climb down and we lost the ribbon markers halfway there, but with Logan leading the way we eventually located the crash.

A fair amount of plane remains at the crash site, including the engine.

We respectfully toured the site for about 15 minutes before heading back to the summit. The climb back up the mountain was as tricky as the climb down to the crash site, but after boosting Tina over a couple steep spots, and again with Logan leading the way, we found ourselves back on the main trail and returning to our car. In all we spent between 2 to 3 hours on Belknap Mountain that day, although more ambitious people may want to try the loop between Gunstock, Belknap, and Piper mountains for a 10-mile day of hiking.

As a bonus we stopped at Johnson's Dairy Bar for ice cream on the way home. A good way to bribe the kids to come with us on our next adventure!