“If you truly love Nature, you will
find beauty everywhere” (Vincent Van Gogh). This explains why people find
beauty all over the world. Indeed, if you asked, “What is the most beautiful
place in the world?” the answers would vary. Some might say the sandy beaches
of Hawaii, the Mediterranean, or the Carribean. Others might prefer the
grandeur of our National Parks such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, or the Grand
Canyon. To my wife Phyllis and me, the most beautiful place in the world is close
to home–right here in this gorgeous Mountain State. It’s Dolly Sods–the home of
our aesthetic soul, the place where beauty is most abundant.
Dolly Sods: Grass Balds
Sitting atop the Potomac Highlands of
Tucker, Randolph, and Grant counties, Dolly Sods is a high-elevation, upland
plateau covering about 32,000 acres. It’s probably best known for the 17,000
acre Dolly Sods Wilderness Area–a haven for backpackers and overnight hikers.
The trails in the Wilderness area are meant for the hale and hearty. Anyone
venturing into the Wilderness Area with a pack on their backs should be ready
for a rugged adventure.
Dolly Sods
In addition to the wilderness
experience offered, Dolly Sods’ great appeal is its landscape. It’s unlike any
other in West Virginia. Driving north on Forest Road 75 (FR 75), which runs the
length of the eastern side of the Dolly Sods Wilderness, the terrain changes
from the familiar to the phenomenal. The south end begins in northern hardwood
forest. But as you progress north, groves of trees become smaller and less
common; rocky outcrops pop up; undulating grassy meadows widen; the heath lands
swell; and the sky seems to slowly open like a flower.
Dolly Sods Sky
FR 75, for the most part flat and
straight as an arrow, serves as a runway lifting you up to an island in the
sky. By the time you reach the northern end of the road at Bear Rocks, you’re
sitting on top of an exotic new world. The heath barrens stretch out on three
sides blanketing the gently rolling hills with low-lying shrubs of berries and
blooms. The rock outcrops’ strange yet alluring shapes seem sculpted by some
unknown but intelligent hand.
Dolly Sods in Pink Azalea
The steep, craggy escarpment of Bear
Rocks severs the heath and draws a line where land quickly falls away to
horizons lined with row after row of mountain ridges as far as the eye can see.
Trees are endowed with majesty. Pines are bowed, but not broken by the
unrelenting west winds. Flag-form spruce stand straight and tall but stripped
of branches on the windward side. To West Virginians not used to unbroken
horizons, the suddenly expansive sky is breathtaking. Clouds, swirling and
dancing above you, seem close enough to touch. To me, Dolly Sods is an island
in the sky, and its lure is its rocks and plants and sky. They are striking,
exotic, and rare.
Dolly Sods: Turtle Rock
Dolly Sods: In Fall
Dolly Sods is phenomenal,no other place in West Virginia is like it.I'm hoping we will have nice weather Saturday so I can go there
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