On a very clear day, skyscrapers in the city of Boston 80 miles (130 km) away are visible from the fire tower on the summit.

Kearsarge is a monadnock, and although of only moderate elevation, its isolation gives it 2,100 ft (640 m) of relative height above the low ground separating it from the higher mountains farther north.

The western slopes of the mountain drain into Cascade Brook, which flows north to the Blackwater River, a stream which flows around the northern and eastern base of Kearsarge, eventually draining into the Contoocook River, a tributary of the Merrimack.

The summit is the high point along the 75-mile (120 km) Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway hiking trail which links 10 towns and encircles the Kearsarge-Lake Sunapee region of western New Hampshire.

The Winslow Trail and the state park on the Wilmot side are named after Admiral John Winslow,[5] the commander of the USS Kearsarge, which in June 1864 sank the CSS Alabama in the English Channel in a famous Civil War sea battle.