Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve

Beautiful hills

Oswegatchie Hills has a name that I find hard to spell, and a beauty in its hill that I find hard to describe. The trail winds through valleys of laurels and over hills of lichen covered rocks. Randomly you find a boulder strategically placed by glaciers long since melted. All of the trails are well blazed, and maps can be found at almost every intersection letting you know exactly where you are. It’s a great trail for those who get easily lost.

Laurel trails

The evergreen Laurels of the hills offer an enveloping landscape to sink into as you hike through.

Rocky trails

The lichen covered rocks are beautiful, especially in the winter when you can see deep into the surrounding woods. This is someplace I would go after a fresh falling of snow.

That view though

The views and the fact that I just got a new phone with a much better camera kept me stopping to try out new features and record what I saw. Every overlook was an opportunity to record the moment.

Mt Tabor and the granite quarry

I often find myself upset at the shortsightedness of the people that have come before us. Why when finding such a beautiful area did you decide that cutting out a chunk of the mountainside for its stone was a good idea. Mt Tabor.

Mt Tabor summit

Not exactly a large mountain to climb, and there wasn’t anything to suggest I was at the summit except that there was nowhere else to climb. But definitely a good view in the winter.

It only took me a couple hours to get to the summit of Mt Tabor and explore most of the blue and red trails of Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve, and it was well worth it. The pond was a popular skating destination to locals when the winters were cold enough to freeze the water. The rock near the center of Clarks Pond is known as engagement rock, it was the spot for locals to propose to their significant others in years past.

Check the Alltrails app for all your hiking and outdoor exploration needs and to track your progress. And look back to the about page for more ideas and places to explore.