Madame Sherri Castle and Mine Ledge
Emilie Phillips
The “castle” had been on our list for a while. It’s only an hour and twenty minutes away. But it was never the most interesting thing to do. We finally made it there this weekend.
The castle was less interesting than I had hoped. Too much of it has fallen down to imagine what it might have been like.
My favorite part was the views from Mine Ledge over the Connecticut River and into Vermont.
The guide book led us below Mine Ledge to find some “ice caves”. We found some very large boulders piled at the bottom of the talus field. The first “cave” we found was a short tunnel under a boulder into an open topped room. The next cave entrance was a little ways up the scree field. We couldn’t get down to it from above, and we couldn’t find it again from below. The third cave entrance was down at the bottom of the ravine, easily accessible. Isaac, Trudy, and I all climbed in. This one was a proper dark cave with some belly crawling. To find the caves, hike west of Mine Ledge until the next drainage. Follow the drainage down left to the bottom of the talus field. Then start poking around under rocks.
For more hikes with caves, see the Crazy Cave Hikes list.
Above Indian Pond and towards Wantastiquet Mountain, we found lots of American Chestnut trees. Some of them were almost four inches in diameter and not yet girdled by the chestnut blight.
Emilie and Tyson’s photos
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- Madame Sherri’s stairway to heaven
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- Upper floor of Madame Sherri’s castle
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- Isaac and Trudy looking at frogs
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- frog
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- Indian Pond
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- View down to Indian Pond
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- Trudy, Tyson, John, and Isaac
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- Tyson at Mine Ledge
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- Viburnum
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- Caterpillar
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- Talus field below Mine Ledge
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- Isaac entering first cave
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- Back side of Madame Sherri’s castle
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- Trudy in the third cave
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- Isaac in the third cave
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- Entrance to the third cave
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- On the way out
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John and Trudy’s photos
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