Dolly Sods: An Island in the Sky

“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