Adirondacks: Silver Lake Bog Preserve

Clickable map

Why You Should Visit
Silver Lake Bog Preserve contains a wide variety of habitats, including a black spruce- tamarack bog, northern white cedar swamp, a hemlock northern hardwood forest, and a pine ridge. The Bluffs trail climbs 200 feet in elevation to a spectacular overlook of Silver Lake.

Location
The Town of Hawkeye, near Union Falls and Silver Lake in Franklin County.

Size
61 acres

Trails
As you walk along the half-mile boardwalk or up the trail to the Bluffs, you will observe distinct changes in the vegetation as the elevation and the soil moisture increase or decrease. A preserve guide is available from the Adirondack Nature Conservancy and at the trail register.

How to Prepare for Your Visit
Please see Preserve Visitation Guidelines

Directions
From the north:

• Take I-87 exit 34 onto Route 9 to Ausable Forks.
• From the blinking light in Ausable Forks, turn right onto Main Street.
• At the stop sign, turn left onto the Silver Lake Road toward Hawkeye.
• Pass the state campground at Taylor Pond and go through Hawkeye to the junction with the Union Falls Road.
• Turn left and travel about 1.5 miles to the Old Hawkeye Road (dirt) on the left.
• The preserve is about a half a mile down the Old Hawkeye Road on the right.

From the south:

• take I-87 exit 30 onto Route 73 to Lake Placid.
• At the traffic light turn right onto Route 86 to Wilmington.
• At the four-way stop stay straight. This puts you on the Bonneview Road.
• Follow it to the end and make a left onto the Silver Lake Road toward Hawkeye.
• Pass the state campground at Taylor Pond and go through Hawkeye to the junction with the Union Falls Road.
• Turn left and travel about 1.5 miles to the Old Hawkeye Road (dirt) on the left.
• The preserve is about a half a mile down the Old Hawkeye Road on the right.

Cinnamon Fern can be seen from the ½-mile boardwalk on the preserve. © Harold E. Malde

• Labrador tea
• creeping snowberry
• pitcher plant
• bunchberry
• sheep laurel
• balsam fir
• black spruce
• white cedar
• cinnamon fern
• and more.

What to See: Animals
You might see:

• spring peepers
• wood frog
• Northern leopard frog
• American toad
• porcupine
• white-tail deer
• snowshoe hare
• fisher
• olive-sided flycatcher
• white-throated sparrows.

Why the Conservancy Selected this Site
This site gives the Conservancy an opportunity to learn about and protect diverse natural communities within a small area. The different vegetation types that grow on the preserve provide a variety of habitats for many bird, mammal and amphibian species.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Conservancy maintains this preserve for educational and scientific purposes.