Green Mountain National Forest is a national forest located in Vermont, a forest area typical of the New England/Acadian forests ecoregion. The forest supports a variety of wildlife, including beaver, moose, coyote, black bear, and white tailed deer. It also supports an abundant variety of bird species, such as wild turkey and ruffed grouse. The forest, being situated in Vermont’s Green Mountains, has been referred to as the ‘granite backbone’ of the state.
The forest was established in 1932, as a result of uncontrolled overlogging, fire and flooding.[3] It consists of 399,151 acres (1,615.31 km2); and is the biggest contiguous land mass in the state. If Finger Lakes National Forest, which is managed as a unit of the Green Mountain National Forest, is included within it, GMNF is one of only two national forest northeast of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey barrier; the other being the White Mountain National Forest. Split into the southwest and central areas, GMNF has a total of eight wilderness areas. These were designated by Congress beginning with the Wilderness Act of 1964 to be areas off limits to mechanized gear down to and including bicycles.
This location was discovered during the depression while the CCC were building the forest road. Over the next seventy years collectors discovered many of the finest alpine quartz specimens from North America here, making the Devil's Den a true classic locality. Take Mt. Tabor Road from Danby, park at Devil's Den picnic area, walk north along road to outcrops on east side of road. Excellent smoky quartz and other minerals are found in pockets in the local schist. https://www.mindat.org/loc-69594.html
Like many National Forests, there are a wide variety of dirt roads with primitive campsites along them in the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont. Learn more about Camping Opportunities in Green Mountain National Forest, including a description of the various camping areas in the forest.
