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North Pawlet Hills Natural Area

  North Pawlet Hills Natural Area 

Aerial view across the "Three Sisters" of North Pawlet Hills.

Visitor Information

The North Pawlet Hills Natural Area is best enjoyed by foot. More information and directions to the natural area.

Get Involved

Would you like to get outside and help nature at the same time? Our stewardship staff holds volunteer work days here and around the state. Check out our volunteer page.

This preserve features a series of rounded, forested peaks in the northern Taconic Mountains, clustered in an extensive landscape of unbroken forest. Locals call Haystack, Middle and Bald Mountains the “Three Sisters.”

Of the three peaks, Haystack Mountain is perhaps the most distinctive, with its sheer cliffs and dramatic outcrops of slate and quartzite. Generations of Vermonters have climbed its steep slopes to admire the panoramic view from the top. From this modest 1,919-foot summit you can see as far west as Glens Falls, NY, and south beyond the farms of the Mettowee Valley to Mount Equinox in Manchester.

Size
739 acres

What to see: plants
Warm southern aspect and shallow soils produce drought-like conditions on the hills and promote the growth of several unusual natural communities, including dry oak woodlands and dry oak-hickory-hophornbeam forests.

What to see: animals
Turkeys, grouse and bobcats roam the rocky landscape. Peregrine falcons sometimes nest on the cliffs of Haystack. These forested hills also provide nesting habitat for neotropical migrant songbirds that rely on unfragmented forest blocks.

What The Nature Conservancy is doing
The Nature Conservancy has been working since 1998 to conserve the heart of this rich, natural landscape. The North Pawlet Hills Natural Area was created in 2001.

Visitor information
There is a trail at this preserve and visitors are welcome. See directions below. Please read our preserve visitation guidelines.

Directions
From Route 30: In Pawlet, turn east onto Waite Road, which is about 1.5 miles north of Pawlet Village. Go about a mile to Tunket Road. Park on Waite Road and walk up Tunket Road—please do not drive up because the road is privately owned and maintained. About 1/2 mile up the road you’ll see a meadow on your left and at the far (north) end of the meadow you’ll see the Conservancy’s sign for the North Pawlet Hills Natural Area and the Colby Chester Trail. Follow the yellow Conservancy trail signs with the green arrows to access the walking trail.

From Route 133: In Pawlet, turn west onto Waite Road, which is about three miles north of Pawlet Village. Go about a mile to Tunket Road. Follow directions as above.

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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Bob Klein/The Nature Conservancy (Aerial view of North Pawlet Hills).