Pawling Nature Reserve

Owned by the Lower Hudson Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Location: In the towns of Pawling and Dover, NY.

Directions: Traveling north on NY 22, continue past the fork where NY 55 joins NY 22 from the west. Turn right at Hurds Corners Road (County Route 68) and proceed approximately 1 mile, bearing left (north) onto Quaker Lake Road. Follow this road 1.4 miles to the main entrance/parking area on your left.

The trail system at Pawling Reserve is quite extensive, and includes the Appalachian Trail, the most frequently used trail at the reserve. Much of the Reserve is covered with second-growth oak woodlands, but among the other natural communities here are red maple-hardwood swamps, successional old fields, and, where several ravines allow for cooler microclimates, hemlock-northern hardwood forests, known as "hemlock cathedrals." The reserve is part of the watershed of the Great Swamp, the second largest freshwater wetland in New York (after the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge).

The Nature Conservancy
Lower Hudson Chapter
41 South Moger Avenue
Mt. Kisco, NY 10549
(914) 244-3271