Mount Starr King stands at 3,907 feet in the Pliny Range above the town of Jefferson, named for Thomas Starr King, the 19th-century Unitarian minister and author whose 1859 book The White Hills helped spark tourism across the region. King's advocacy during the Civil War was also credited with helping keep California in the Union.
The Starr King Trail begins in Jefferson and rises steadily through hardwood forest that gives way to spruce and fir near the top, covering about 3.6 miles one-way with roughly 1,900 feet of gain. A stone fireplace at the summit marks the site of a long-gone summit cabin, and the views south sweep across Jefferson's broad plain toward the full Presidential Range. Most hikers continue the short additional distance to neighboring Mount Waumbek, a NH 4000-footer linked by a wooded ridge, making the combined trip roughly 7 miles round trip.
