For outdoor recreation grounded in early conservation history, the summit hike to the Belknap Fire Tower is one of the most rewarding and popular trails in the Lakes Region. Rising 2,382 feet as the high point of the range, Belknap Mountain served as a crucial regional triangulation and survey station as early as the 19th century before playing a pioneering role in New Hampshire forest fire protection. In the 1910s, the state constructed one of its earliest wooden observation lookouts on the peak, which was later replaced in the late 1930s with the current 60-foot steel tower erected with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Today, hikers can climb the tower’s stairs to take in sweeping 360-degree vistas that stretch across Lake Winnipesaukee to Mount Chocorua and Mount Washington.