Spruce Mountain Fire Tower Trailhead, Porter Corners NY

Awesome hike. Nice elevation gain. Great trail. Tons of big trees. Climbing the tower for a view is a nice bonus.

Nice hike up the mountain, it’s closer to 2 miles up and 2 miles down, fairly steep but not bad! The fire tower is open and pretty high!

Recently wanted to get into hiking, and this hike is perfect for beginners! I haven't been conditioning for too long so at times I was decently out of breath, but it was very manageable. There isn't a view unless you climb the fire tower, but the view at the top of it was gorgeous! I honestly really appreciated it because it was an insane view for the difficulty of the hike (thanks the the height of the tower!)

Overall, I highly recommend for any age/fitness level. It's short too, so if you need to take your time you'll still finish in a relatively decent time. It was pretty crowded (went on a Saturday), but people are respectful and one group would go up the tower at a time and spend just a few minutes. Many people brought their dogs, but picked up after them well.

It's a nice quick fun hike. There isn't much of a view at the top unless you climb the fire tower but when you do it's worth it.

The hike was a moderate climb for me (I don't incline hike that often so I was a bit winded at times). The path was pretty rocky and rooty so watch your step. It's a comfortably shaded hike and not crowded at all. No views at the top unless you climb the tower (if you have the energy to do that after the hike).

What in the world was I thinking when I suggested we walk to the top of this mountain and climb a tower:). We are not hiking people. We are exploring flatlands people. They signs say one mile and some. Welp walking a mile generally takes maybe 30mins it took us at least 2 hrs to get to the tower. Coming down, probably 1.5 hours. It was dry but extremely slippery coming down the mountain. There were maybe 10 groups coming down as we were going up, and a few more came along up as we were going up, so the trail is busy but no crowded. We took Opal with us and met a few dogs along the way. Initially, there was some concern about racist due to signage on homes coming up the mountain. Everyone we met were friendly in their passing. I'm not sure what big game is hunted here, but we called the ranger before going up the mountain. We saw plenty of chipmunks, no deer or bears:)

Timber harvest happening while I went, be cautious of one logging xing where the trail travels through private land. It's a very rocky trail, but not too difficult by any means. Well marked and incredibly muddy.

Wet and muddy, which is to be expected this time of year. Manageable though. Beautiful views from the fire tower. Moderate hike due to the amount of rock and roots.

Went this morning and it was really difficult. Trees are down and the pass was not cleared or marked. I ended up lost because there was not marked trees to show the correct path up the mountain. Very disappointed and all cut up from all the branches and trees.

Was a little tough for our 3 yr old to complete, but he powered through with his 5 yr old sibling. Kind people were so nice to them while hiking, I think it kept them motivated to keep going.