Little Ascutney Mountain

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fall Colors · River/Creek · Views

Follow a woods road and narrow trail up the face of Little Ascutney mountain to a wonderful lookout and cliff face at Stapleton Point. The trail is unmarked but easy to follow.

Parking at lower and upper gates. Access by car to upper gate/lot closed in April/May.

Turn off VT Route 10 in Weathersfield to Ascutney Basin Road. Turn Northeast onto Ascutney Basin Road and drive approximately 0.5 miles to the first gate. You may park here or drive past this gate along the very steep gravel road to the second gate, approximately 0.35 miles. There is a second parking lot here on the right. Follow the woods road just a little and then turn right at the fork.

Here you'll follow a lesser-used woods road that crosses a creek and becomes a footpath. The trail is unmarked but easily followed as it first winds then climbs, steely at times, along the north face of Little Ascutney Mountain. At 1 mile or so, the trail begins to level out as you reach the mountain shoulder. From here, another approximate 0.25 miles to Stapleton Point, a terrific lookout on a cliff face overlooking Little Ascutney Road and Vermont Route 131.

Here you can look south toward the road and farmlands and southeast toward the Green Mountain range. Head toward the opposite side of the shoulder for a great view of Mt. Ascutney. Turn around and follow the trail back to second gate and the parking lot. Total round trip is approximately 2.6 miles and just under 2 hours without breaks.

Little Ascutney WMA contains a unique variety of wildlife habitats including vernal pools, beaver flowages, open fields with apple trees, historic sites and hawthorn bushes, patches of alder and aspen, and an unusual forest type, oak-hickory hophornbeam, which produces mast (the nuts of forest trees accumulating on the ground and used for food). Hemlock stands provide necessary deer wintering habitat. Open talus (rock slopes) is found on the southwest slope, along with transitional hardwood talus woodland. The very rare hay sedge (Carex foenea) and Back's sedge (Carex backii) can be found on Little Ascutney. The west-facing cliffs of Little Ascutney Mountain are an historic site for the federally-endangered peregrine falcon and state listed timber rattlesnake (from WMA website).

Little Ascutney Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is comprised of 656 acres. It is located in the towns of Weathersfield and West Windsor, and includes Little Ascutney Mountain and Pierson's Peak. It is owned by the State of Vermont and managed by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. The Department also owns permanent hunting rights on an additional 209 acres. Abutting the WMA's northeast corner, the 1,000+ acre West Windsor Town Forest extends northward to Ascutney State Park. These three connecting properties account for one of the largest continuously-forested areas in the region. (from WMA website).