In summer 2022, Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) established the 825-acre Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary in Ryegate, Vt. To showcase the preserve’s natural beauty, NEWT asked Reel Quest Films to create a short film about the property as part of a three-part video series. The sanctuary protects a diversity of habitats, from the spruce-fir forests at the summit of Blue Mountain to the northern hardwood and oak forests on its lower slopes to several types of wetlands, including a Northern White Cedar Swamp.

We spent two days exploring this property on foot and by drone and were struck by the size of some of the older sugar maples and yellow birches. With the mountain situated just west of the Connecticut River Valley, our morning drone shots were able to take advantage of the beauty of the late summer fog that rises from the river almost daily in August.

Learn More:

Watch the second video in the NEWT nature video series about Vermont’s Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve.