Name: Blue Job State Forest
Rules: No motorized vehicles, but trail bikes allowed. No camping, no fires. Carry in / carry out. Amenities: Good trail marking that crosses some privately owned landed with permission. Fire tower and picnic area at summit. Blueberries in July.
Hours: Closed from 8PM to 5AM.
Parking: Large parking area
Dogs: Yes, on leash.
Directions: The parking lot on First Crown Point Road is about five miles from US Route 202A. (Beware! This is NH and there is also Crown Point Road and Second Crown Point Road placed there especially to confuse out-of-towners by the ancient pioneers.)
NH State Forestry web site

We were on unfamiliar turf here in beautiful Strafford, NH and it took awhile to find the trail head, which as you can see, is pretty hard to miss. Blue Job marks the foothills of the White Mountains which are visible from the fire tower on the peak. We clocked it the trail at about 35 miles from Portsmouth, but close indeed to Rochester where more and more Seacoasters live these days.

Unlike our typical sea level hikes, the main trail at Blue Job is a steady climb. The ascent is much like walking up stairs, except that, instead of stairs, you are walking on stones covered in potentially slippery needles. Much of trail looks like a riverbed and we can only assume it becomes one during a heavy rain.

The trail making is excellent, with painted guides on the ground and on the trees at eye level. There is one superb natural viewing point at the summit. The short walk from there to the fire tower takes you across town lines from Farmington into Strafford. We’re told that the view takes in the White Mountains, the NH Lakes, the Monadnock area, Mount Washington to the Seacoast. Having left the binoculars behind, we cannot confirm that it’s a great view all around, with the four corners of the state – plus Maine -- all seem far away.

We started late on a fall afternoon and when the sun dipped behind clouds it was quickly dark. When the sun slipped below, however, we were able to walk down in a golden light. That light, backed by golden leaves, makes it a little tricky to see the orange trail markings. The orange markings on the posted trail map had long since faded away.

Blue Job clocks in at only 1,356 feet and guidebooks frequently offer that it is a hike easy enough for children. It is short, less than a mile each way, but we suggest some children, especially those raised on Twinkies and Snack Paks may find it challenging. The viewing tower at the top is, as usual, married to an ugly antenna tower. The steel tower was built in 1913 and looks a bit spindly. The metal steps are steep and the platform is surrounded by a security net that, again, might not be suitable for children not securely fastened to an adult. The NH State Forestry department runs the lookout tower which is 34-feet high, so probably 24 feet at the public viewing level. – JDR

Continue to Summit of BLUE JOB MOUNTAIN photo tour