Swift Creek Bluffs is the Joyce Kilmer of beech trees. Clinging to the 100-foot bluffs that rise abruptly from Swift Creek are massive beech dating back to the days of James Madison, “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the latest  craze in transportation, canals. The size and stature of the beech 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 busy Holly Springs Road to the east. Stand at the base of Stairway to Heaven, the series of steps that takes you to the ridge, take in the beech bowl rising before you and you truly are transported from the heart of Cary to Joyce Kilmer, western North Carolina’s sylvan sanctuary that is home to some of the largest trees on the East Coast.

The Kilmer effect at Swift Creek is heightened on the north-facing bluff, whose 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-emulating setting, you’ll find montane hemlocks thriving at the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve.) Strategically placed 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. In the spring, bloodroot and trout lily kick off a festive wildlife season that begins mid-February. The preserve earns a place in “The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide,” especially during migration and early breeding season. And Swift Creek itself is a playground for beaver, muskrat and an assortment of aquatic life. In the transition from winter to spring, vernal pools that collect at the base of the bluffs offer 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 that puts a concealing roof on surrounding Cary.

At 23 acres, urban escape comes in a small package at Swift Creek Bluffs.

Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve trail guide
Swift Creek Nature Preserve Quick Info
Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve Map