Quarries on Mt Aelous

Some more great hikes can be had by parking at the trailhead on Dorset Hill Road in East Dorset and walking up the mountain. A short distance up the trail there are two gates, both usually kept open. To the left, the trail will take you up towards a cell tower and a open-air marble quarry, with great views to the southern valley. You are standing on the furthest east peak in the Taconics, looking across the valley at the Green Mountains.

The marble quarry there is like a room, with a stone floor and steep 200' stone walls. There's a wide opening to enter, but once inside, it almost seems like a very large church. Leaves have blown inside this ring of marble cliffs over the years and decomposed, so there are some large trees growing up on the stone floor. You wonder - how long did that take? We saw a yellow lady's slipper and columbine blooming when we were there this week too.

Hike up further, you'll reach the bat cave. This bat cave was once one of the most populated of any on the East Coast. But the last few years a mysterious illness has decimated the inhabitants. The metal grate to the cave was once opened turning the summer, but this year it will stay locked to protect the domain of the remaing bats.

From the bat cave, it is a serious upward scramble to the top of the mountain. I still haven't been up there, but my goal is for this summer. Bob says the view is worth the climb.

If you go straight at the gates, instead of bearing to the left to go to the cell tower area and the bat cave, you'll reach another few marble quarries. The main one is the Friedleyville Quarry, a cave quarry. There's also a nice lookout there, and another pit quarry a little further up the trail.

These hikes are steady uphill climbs, and a couple miles roundtrip, and you are following a dirt road for much of the way, so the path surface is usually in good shape. If you are interested in Vermont history - these are the oldest marble quarries in the country and are quite beautiful.