Best Hunting Preserve Cary Near Me

4worldlovers:
Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve is home to a unique community of Eastern Hemlock trees and other mountain plant species, access to approximately 3 miles of mulched nature trails, scenic overlooks, excellent bird and wildlife watching opportunities and areas for quiet nature reflection.

The Stevens Nature Center provides interactive, educational nature exhibits and historical exhibits from the Piedmont of North Carolina. The nature center also provides nature interpretation and environmental education programs for all ages throughout the year. Stevens Nature Center is currently closed.

For your safety and the protection of the preserve, stay on the trails.

Bicycles, skateboards, roller-blades, motorized vehicles, and horses are not permitted on the trails.

This is a nature preserve; collection, removal, or disturbance of any natural object is prohibited.

4worldlovers: TLC nature preserves are still open! Stay 6 feet apart, take all trash with you, and avoid overcrowding the parking lots.


At Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve, massive beech trees dating back to the days of James Madison cling to the 100-foot bluffs rising abruptly from Swift Creek. The beech trees are all the more impressive squeezed as they are onto a three-quarter-mile-long preserve bound by Lochmere Golf Course to the west, a housing development to the south, and the busy Holly Springs Road to the east. Standing at the base of the Stairway to Heaven, a series of steps leading you up the ridge, you can take in the beech bowl rising before you. There, you are transported from the heart of Cary to the primitive forests of western North Carolina.

The north-facing bluff’s shaded slopes support flora more at home in the cooler Appalachians: hydrangea, bigleaf snowbell, witch-hazel and alternate-leaf dogwood. Two miles upstream, in a similar alpine-like setting, you’ll find montane hemlocks thriving at the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. Benches allow visitors to rest and enjoy the cool of the bluffs, even in the heat of summer.


There may only be a mile or so of trail, but don’t expect to blow through the preserve. In addition to the neck-craning beech, a narrow floodplain offers multiple reasons to take your time. Bloodroot and trout lily kick off a festive wildlife season that begins mid-February. The preserve respectfully earns its place in The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide, especially during migration and the early breeding season. Swift Creek itself is a playground for beaver, muskrat, and an assortment of aquatic life. In the transition from winter to spring, vernal pools collect at the base of the bluffs, offering ideal breeding grounds for spring peepers and upland chorus frogs, noted, respectively, for their high-pitched call and resemblance to a thumb being run over the tines of a comb.

Hike to the top of the bluff and take advantage of the numerous benches that turn their back on civilization (literally: the Lochmere development is less than 100 feet away). Take in the passage of Swift Creek below and a lush hardwood canopy concealing the surrounding hustle and bustle of Cary just beyond. At 23 acres, urban escape comes in a small, but powerful package at Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve.

Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve has been named a WakeWonder by the WakeNature Preserves Partnership. WakeWonders are the most outstanding natural features in Wake County – features sure to inspire awe and amazement in all who visit. Additional WakeWonders include TLC’s Temple Flat Rock Preserve, Annie Louise Wilkerson, MD Nature Preserve Park, Harris Lake County Park, Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, Prairie Ridge Ecostation, and Robertson Millpond Preserve.