This weekend brought predictions of rain on Sunday, so camping was ruled out. Temperatures are low, and the sky is blue. We decided to take a hike up to the Red Hill Fire Tower again.
See these links for background:
Red Hill Tower Site
Wikipedia Info
Before we arrived, we couldn't help but note that orange leaves have already fallen.
Let's go!
This time, the tower is open and we can go all the way up.
Views from the top are amazing this time! (Compare to the pictures below, which show our first visit!) This is the bit of Red Hill that mom lives on, but her house is currently hidden by leaves. We drove to her house later in the day and found that if you walk 10 feet to the left of the front porch, you can clearly see this fire tower in the distance.
Use the map to help you find your mountaintop. Binoculars are also provided.
Also inside the tower are signs with key landmarks, towns, and mountains labeled.
This shows the sign and corresponding photo.
The fire tower cabin is also great. The inside is full of historical information and pictures. Volunteers do an excellent job at keeping the place beautiful and were very helpful with trail information.
In April 2008 when we tried this, it was a bit colder with different views.
Consider the weather when you plan a hike like this because the elevation change makes a difference.
Yes, that's snow in the hole.
You can kind of make out the scaffolding of the tower:
