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Lake Dunmore from above Branbury Beach

Location

This panorama is taken from a quartzite outcrop north of the Falls of Lana looking west across Branbury Beach and the lake. The elevation is about 800 feet.

Landscape

Bedrock outcrops make these panoramas possible by providing a break in the otherwise continuous forest cover. The outcrops support plant communities which do not grow elsewhere, and often include unusual species. The low elevation outcrops often include pitch pines in a community called the Pitch Pine-Oak-Heath Rocky Summit community. Several dozen pitch pines grow near the outcrop from which this panorama was taken along with white pine, white, red, and chestnut oak, red maple, and red pine. The outcrops supporting this community are all below an elevation of about 1000 feet. Higher outcrops, such as Rattlesnake Point (1500 feet), support similar species but without pitch pine and with more red pine. The ridges around Lake Dunmore include six known locations of the pitch pine community and several additional locations that need to be explored. The community is not known from Vermont north of the Lake Dunmore area.

GigaPan

This panorama is made from 416 images taken on July 28, 2009. It covers a field of view of 190 degrees, and includes 1.83 billion pixels (1830 MP).

What to look for

A sailboard under sail
Sittin' on the dock of Songadeewin
Pitch pines (out of focus)
A puzzle
The answer to the puzzle (experts only)

History (Branbury)

Level, stone-free areas near Lake Dunmore occur only where ancient rivers built deltas into the lake. Three such areas around the north end of the lake are prized real estate, and have long histories of agriculture, industry, or recreation. The site of Branbury State Park was a farm at the end of the 19th century. A small hotel was built there in 1895 despite the fact that there was no road extending north along the east side of the lake until 1913. The property became a summer boys' camp in 1919 and then a private swimming and picnicing area in 1931. In 1945 it became a state park, although the lakeside point of land remains in private ownership. Delta sands underlie the soft lawn, sandy beach, and firm-bottomed swimming area, and help make this park one of the most popular in the state.