Trail Review: Fair Hill’s Ranger Recommended Hiking Trail

Today Nick and I headed out to Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area. Seningen unfortunately couldn’t join us, but boy did he miss out. This trip we were planning to do the Blue Diamond Trail, but when we got there we saw this little baby (pictured left). When you see a trail blazer with a Ranger hat and recommendation from the people who walk these trails regularly, how can you turn that down?! That fun hat sits upon the heads of some smart cookies!

One of the first great features of this trail was a view of some of the old ruins found around Fair Hill. Given that it is the spooky time of year, these were awesome to see with the fall leaves all around them. As you can see Nick was zooming to get over there to see them. This is one of two ruins we got to see on this hike. The other is called the “Willis House” and was later in the trail. I will include a picture of that one in the gallery below.

If you like beautiful creek crossings on picture perfect bridges, this is also a great trail for you. Here was one of them, but there were a bunch of them. I am a sucker for a good bridge crossing and picture opportunity. This trail combines the too. While I could have sat there and listened to the creek forever, we had places to be.

The trail weaves its way through a variety of features. It goes up and down in elevation, crosses streams and creeks, winds through forests and fields, and provides a look at some of the horse farms and ruins Fair Hill is known form. As we hiked along, we were not surprised that the Rangers picked this route. It seems to be the best of a bunch of the trails near the Appleton Road Trailhead. Overall we were a fan of this hike.

In terms of difficulty, From parking lot along, the whole trail, and back to the parking lot the trail is 5.9 miles according to my GPS app on FitBit. As you can see we completed the trail in a little over 2 hours. Of that about 45minutes of it was strenuous enough to push me into fat-burn zone. The yellow zones show those areas where we were traveling the most uphill. Unfortunately, the hike back to the parking lot and Bucky was all uphill.

Final Rating:

Difficulty: Moderate
Views: Very Good
Best Part: The many opportunities to see Fair Hill and its creeks.
Worst Part: The uphill climb back to the parking lot. It is pretty rough after hiking 5 miles.
Recommended: Absolutely, listen to the Rangers!