Walking Maine's Wild Side: Black Mountain 9/4/2026

Although I've hiked over Black Mountain multiple times on my way to Rumford Whitecap, today was the first time that I hiked Black Mountain by itself, and the first time I had been to its western (highest) peak. We started from the ski area parking lot, and the trail was in excellent condition as we ascended.

Heading up a ski slope on the lower part of the trail

The trail is well marked!

One of the viewpoints on the way up

Black Mountain may not have one large expansive viewpoint, but the numerous viewpoints looking in different directions spread out through the ascent make for a very interesting and enjoyable hike. My favorite two viewpoints are the one from a large rock down a short side trail, and the one from a small rock ledge, just after crossing the last ski trail of the ascent. The views today were excellent, and the fall colors are starting to show more and more! After reaching the spot where the trail crosses the cell tower access road, we turned right onto the road and descended into the col between the east and west peaks of the mountain. From the col, it was an easy climb up on another cell tower access road to the highest point on the mountain.

The viewpoint where we ate lunch

Wind farm construction on South Twin Mountain

Signage pointing back to the ski area base

At the summit, there is a very substantial cell tower, along with a large rock ledge offering somewhat restricted views to the north and west. The most interesting part of the view from the summit was a framed up-close view of the extensive open ledges on Rumford Whitecap. From the summit, we descended back to one of the lower viewpoints for lunch, and then headed back the way that we came to the ski area base. Black Mountain is a great, easily accessible hike, that seems to be underrated as a mountain worth climbing by itself.