Mount Madison Lookout

Status: Former Lookout
Elevation: 5,366 feet
Prominence: 466 feet
State: New Hampshire
County: Coos
AT Access: The trail goes up and over the summit.

In 1912, this location was used for two or three years in the early days of the lookout service because the Appalachian Mountain Club maintained a caretaker at the Madison Hut, where there was a telephone connected to the valley. The Forestry Commission paid the Club a small sum to have the caretaker run up to the summit from time to time. The station was located at the summit cairn as shown in the photo. Since this is a very high summit which was often in the clouds, visibility was often poor.

AMCs original Madison Spring Hut was built in 1888 just 12 years after the club was founded in 1876, the oldest hut in the nation.

Mount Madison is the northernmost peak in the Presidentials. Like most of the range, the summit is above tree line. The Appalachian Trail goes up and over the summit.

Said to be the summit cairn during the time it was being used for observations.

1893 map showing the AMC Hut below the summit in the saddle

Showing the route of the Appalachian Trail as it skirts the side of Mount Madison. An alternate route to summit goes up and over.

The AT drops down Osgood Ridge and eventually climbs all those distant mountains.

Mount Madison from Mt. Adams

Madison and the Madison Hut

Dropping off Washington in route to Madison

The two highest mountains in New Hampshire.

Looking Northeast and taking some time to spy into Maine for the first time.

Done with the Presidentials, time to relax a bit.

Map from the FarOut app showing the AT (red) and blue blaze trails up Mt. Adams and around Madison if the weather was really bad.