This Land, Your Land

With a series of guided hikes that start next Sunday, the Nature Conservancy in North Carolina opens three of its preserves to the public for guided hikes this summer and fall.

The first of the hikes are available May 29 at Bat Cave Preserve in Rutherford County's Hickory Nut Gorge and at Bluff Mountain Preserve in Ashe County.

Bat Cave Preserve, which includes Bat Cave and Little Bat Cave, below, is the site of the longest augen gneiss fissure cave in the world and forests that harbor a number of threatened or endangered plants, such as broadleaf coreopsis and Carey’s saxifrage.

Click on the photo or the link above for a look at the hike we took to Bat Cave Preserve with the Nature Conservancy.

In recent years, the caves have been closed to avoid spreading white-nose syndrome, a disease that has killed a half million bats in the northeast and as far south as Virginia, but there's plenty more to see.

Hikes at Bat Cave Preserve are set for May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, September 25 and October 23. The hike is two miles, with parts that are fairly steep and strenuous. The hike takes approximately two to two and a half hours. Make a reservation or ask questions at batcavehikes@gmail.com or 828-290-9217.

Bluff Mountain Preserve is one of the most ecologically significant natural areas in the Southeast, according to the Conservancy. It includes a broad, high plateau containing a one-of-a-kind wetland, a southern Appalachian fen, an old-growth Carolina hemlock forest and a rare flat-rock plant community.

Bluff Mountain Preserve hikes are set for May 29, June 24, July 3, September 3 and October 14. The cost is $10 per person. Get more information at bluffmountainpreserve@gmail.com or (336) 497-1972.

Big Yellow Mountain hikes take you through hardwood forests to the mountain's open, grassy 5,540-foot peak in the Roan Highlands.

Big Yellow hikes are set for June 4, July 23 and September 10. For more information or to make reservations, drop a line to bigyellowmountain@gmail.com.