Millstone Hill
Conservation Area · Websterville, Vermont
Fifteen hundred acres of regrowing forest above Barre with seventy miles of trail threaded through the dozens of small granite quarries that were abandoned when the industry consolidated in the 1940s. What is left is strange and specific: flooded pits of clear green water, chiselled grey cliffs cut by hand, and enormous mounds of waste rock now under moss and birch. Ten lookouts open onto quarry ponds and the mountains beyond. It is run by a volunteer trails association, some of the mountain biking is as hard as anything in Vermont, and it is the third and least known part of the Barre granite story - the museum explains the trade and Hope Cemetery is what the carvers made, but this is where the stone came out.
34 Church Hill Road, Websterville, Vermont, 05678, United States
Trails are open year round on a network of about 70 miles across 1,500 acres of abandoned granite quarries, maintained by the volunteer MILLSTONE TRAILS ASSOCIATION on a mix of town forest and private land. Free parking at the trailhead. ⚠ CHECK THE ASSOCIATION'S CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS BEFORE RIDING - trail pass or membership requirements for mountain biking have varied, part of the network crosses private land, and access depends on landowner goodwill. Walking access is generally more open than riding access. ⚠ CARRY THE ASSOCIATION'S CURRENT MAP; seventy miles of trail through former industrial ground is genuinely confusing. ⚠ THIS IS AN ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE WITH UNFENCED ROCK FACES, SHEER DROPS AND FLOODED QUARRY PITS - keep dogs and children close near edges and water, and DO NOT SWIM IN THE PITS, which are cold, deep, steep-sided and have no way out. ⚠ SOME OF THE MOUNTAIN BIKING IS AMONG THE MOST TECHNICALLY DIFFICULT IN VERMONT - read the grades rather than guessing. ⚠ STAY OFF IN MUD SEASON. In winter the network becomes snowshoe and ski terrain. ⚠ THE ADDRESS IS IN WEBSTERVILLE, which is a village within Barre Town.