Mount Jefferson is located in
Coos County,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, and is the third highest mountain in the state. The mountain is named after
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, the third president of the United States, and is part of the
Presidential Range
The Presidential Range is a mountain range located in the White Mountains of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Containing the highest peaks of the Whites, its most notable summits are named for American presidents, followed by prominent public ...
of the
White Mountains.
Mount Jefferson is flanked by
Mount Adams (to the northeast) and
Mount Clay
Mount Clay is a peak located in Thompson and Meserve's Purchase in Coos County in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is a rise about long and a few hundred feet tall, with summit elevation of ; it lies on the ri ...
(to the south).
The mountain has several interesting features, making it a popular hike. Two distinct ridges lead to its summit: Ridge of the Caps and Castle Ridge. The mountain is surrounded by the three dramatic glacial
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...
s of Jefferson Ravine, Castle Ravine, and the
Great Gulf
The Great Gulf is a glacial cirque, or amphitheater-like valley head formed from a glacier by erosion, located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The cirque's walls are formed, from south to north, by the mountainsides of Mount Washington ( ...
. Finally, Monticello Lawn is a large expanse of alpine sedge and rush near the otherwise
talus-covered summit cone. When viewed from the Mount Washington Auto Road, Jefferson features an arrow-shaped bald patch pointing to its summit.
Mount Jefferson has a direct ascent along the Caps Ridge Trail, whose base, Jefferson Notch, is the highest point of any public road in New Hampshire at . This route, gaining only vertically to the summit, results in it having the least distance of ascent of any Presidential mountain (about 2.5 miles). However, climbing over the "caps" involves some exposed scrambling and can be steep and challenging at times.
See also
*
List of mountains in New Hampshire
List of Mountains in New Hampshire is a general list of mountains in New Hampshire, with elevation. This list includes many mountains in the White Mountains range that covers about a quarter of the state, as well as mountains outside of that ran ...
*
four-thousand footers
Four-thousand footers (sometimes abbreviated 4ks) are a group of forty-eight mountains in New Hampshire at least above sea level. To qualify for inclusion a peak must also meet the more technical criterion of topographic prominence important ...
*
White Mountain National Forest
The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is a federally managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had alre ...
*
List of people who died on the Presidential Range
The Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire consist of a series of mountains whose maximum elevation reaches and represent some of the highest mountains in the United States east of the Mississippi River. Fatalities in this ...
References
External links
*
PeakBagger.com: Mount JeffersonAMC: Hiking Mount Jefferson
Mountains of New Hampshire
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
Mountains of Coös County, New Hampshire
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