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Wildcat Mountain Natural Area

Wildcat Mountain Natural Area
Wildcat Mountain Natural Area
© Daniel White/TNC

Why You Should Visit
Wildcat Mountain offers an outstanding variety of plant and animal communities. With altitudes ranging from 1,200 feet near the top of the mountain, to a low point of 500 feet, the predominately steep and hilly land provides a broad range of habitat types. Also, a few coastal and higher Appalachian species appear here, approaching their geographic limits in northern Virginia.

Location
Fauquier County: on the western slopes of Wildcat Mountain in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Hours
Year-round, dawn to dusk.

Size
655 acres

Conditions
Moderate to difficult hiking.

How to Prepare for Your Visit
For information, please contact the State Office at (434) 295-6106. Please see "Preserve Visitation Guidelines"

Directions
From Washington, D.C.:

  • Take 66 west approximately 31 miles west of Beltway 495 and take exit 28 at Marshall.
  • Take a left at the end of the exit ramp onto Route 17 south and follow it for a quarter mile.
  • Take a right onto Route 691 and follow for 5.25 miles.
  • Take a left onto England Mountain road. This is a private paved driveway.
  • Follow this driveway past house on left with satellite dish, and then keep straight ahead on gravel road (private paved drive bears to left).
  • Park on left side of lane just past the paved drive and walk until road ends in a "T."
  • Take a right at this T and walk to the end. The trailhead is located to the left side. The trail is clearly marked to a fire road at the top of the mountain.

From the south: 

  • Follow Route 29 north of Charlottesville for roughly 60 miles to Warrenton.
  • Turn left onto Business Route 29 at the first light.
  • Go 1.5 miles and turn left onto Route 211 west.
  • Go to the next light and turn right.
  • Go one block to the stop sign and turn left onto Waterloo Road (Route 678).
  • Go 6.5 miles (it changes to Wilson Road) and turn right onto Carter Run Road (Route 691). [NOTE: This is a "T" intersection and easy to miss!]
  • Go 3.3 miles and turn right onto England Mtn. Road and follow the above directions from that point on

What to See: Animals
Typical wildlife of the region flourish here, especially red and gray fox, bobcat, deer, skunk, gray and fox squirrel, raccoon, and smaller mammals. Transient black bears visit occasionally, and 186 species of birds have been recorded in the preserve.

What to See: Plants
Older stands of large oak and hickory alternate with stands of pine and younger forest. A new ecosystem of hickories, beech, and oak has evolved through succession. Formerly cleared areas, marked by pine, are giving way to hardwoods in most instances; last stages of field succession are still visible in others. Redbud, dogwood, hackberry, sassafras, and wild cherry grow along fringe areas adjacent to neighboring farms.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
In the 1960s, a large portion of Wildcat Mountain was given to The Nature Conservancy by the Arundel family. Although entirely wooded now, Wildcat Mountain Natural Area has a long history of human use. Aside from patches of mature oak-hickory forests which were only lightly logged, the preserve was cleared for farms as early as the 18th Century. Old stone walls still meander through the preserve, marking boundary lines and former fields.

Many of the homesteads were abandoned after the Civil War, although some farming and considerable logging continued into the 20th Century. At that time, much of Wildcat Mountain Farm was converted to an apple orchard. However, all logging and farming ceased on the western slope in the 1940s.

Before cultivation or extensive logging, most of the mountain was probably a forest of beech, oak and American chestnut. However, in the 1920s a devastating blight killed most of the American chestnuts. Their loss brought economic disaster to many rural people who depended on the sale or use of the nuts, wood and bark (for tannin). Impact on wildlife was significant as well, since chestnut was a major food source.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
Natural succession was well under way at the time the preserve was donated to the Conservancy. Smaller, adjacent portions have been donated and added onto the Wildcat Mountain preserve since then, allowing additional access for visitors to the preserve.