Oak Hickory and Lost Chestnut Trails
Trail length: 1.0 miles
From Visitors Center to trail: 0.1 mile
Round Trip: 1.2 miles
The entrance to this tour is off of Valley Road, just above the Visitors Center. The Oak Hickory Trail at the beginning of the tour takes visitors through the oak and hickory stands which are the dominent trees in this forest type. Oaks include, white oak, red oak, black oak, and chestnut oak. Some of the dominant hickories are shagbark, mockernut, bitternut, and pignut. Before the chestnut blight destroyed most of the American chestnuts, this type of forest was dominated by oak and chestnut. Since the chestnut blight was gradual, the hickories slowly took over where chestnuts had died.
The Lost Chestnut Trail begins where the Oak Hickory Trail ends. The trail provides an opportunity to observe surviving traces of the once abundant and majestic American chestnut tree. The only reminders today of this once magnificent forest tree are the old decaying stumps and logs.
At the end of the trail, walkers can rejoin Valley Road and visit the Dwarf Conifer Collection on the way back to the Visitors Center.
| 
