The Beaver Brook Trail to Mount Moosilauke is a moderately trafficked out-and-back trail with beautiful cascades and summit views. This is a very steep trail that can be difficult if wet, but is very rewarding after the first 1.5-mile steep climb.
The trail begins flat for a quarter mile before passing a sign warning of the difficulty and steepness of the trail. Past this sign, the steep climb begins for 1.5 miles to the Beaver Brook Shelter, owned by the Dartmouth Outing Club. The trail has many wooden stairs along several steep rock faces. To the right of the trail on the ascent are the Beaver Brook Cascades, where hikers are distracted from their burning legs by beautiful waterfalls, visible from many points along the trail. These falls are stronger in spring during the melting season, but are nevertheless beautiful during the autumn when they are much slower.
Shortly after the shelter, which includes a lean-to, a tent-site, and a privy, the trail becomes less steep and climbs gently to the junction of the Beaver Brook Trail with the Asquam Ridge Trail at 1.9 miles. Hikers continue below treeline but on a much flatter ascent for another 2 miles to the summit of Mount Moosilauke, meeting the junction of the Benton Trail 0.4 miles before the summit.
The summit of Mount Moosilauke is wide and has lots of alpine grass. The mountain’s name is the Algonquin word for “bald place.” This means that the summit is often very windy, but also that the views are spectacular in all directions. Just across Kinsman Notch are the Kinsmans and Cannon Mountain, behind which lies the beautiful and popular Franconia ridge of the Pemigewasset. On a clear day, the views extend much farther, even to the Presidential Mountains 30 miles away.
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