Round Top Mountain

Round Top Mountain in blue; A Trail in orange; B Trail and Long Pond Trail in pink; accessible Homestead Trail in lavender.

Round Top is a popular little mountain, 1,133 feet, set within the 6,800-acre Kennebec Highlands, with decent views east and an easy to moderate hike. After about one mile or so of a steady, gentle uphill, the trail crosses an old track and also at this point splits, forming the start and end of a loop. I recommend doing this loop clockwise, to get some of the nice easterly views over the Belgrade Lakes area as you go down. The spur trail, at 1.7 miles, also leads to a small ledge with views (but these aren’t as nice as the ledgy views you’ll see on the hike down, in my opinion!).

The footpaths on this mountain at times intersect with an older, less well maintained track called the Kennebec Highlands Trail. Some of the Round Top trail also overlaps onto this trail, so keep an eye out for when the footpath turns off of it (it’ll be marked with blazes and signs, but if you’re lost in thought, these can be easily missed).

Two other trail systems share the trailhead and parking area with Round Top. The A Trail, for both mountain bikers and hikers, goes up neighboring McGaffey Mountain. The B Trail system winds through pretty forest, connecting to the accessible 0.3-mile Homestead Trail and bringing you down to the lake, which is enticingly swimmable! According to my GPS, the total B Trail loop is about 1.7 miles. Long Pond Trail, which brings you down the side of the hill to the pond, is about 0.5 miles. From the Round Top parking area, the most direct route to the pond is about 1 mile.

Directions: A large parking lot is located at the corner of Watson Pond Road and Wildflower Estates, 4 miles south of Watson Pond Road’s junction with Route 27.