Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Dolly Sods Wilderness
The Dolly Sods Wilderness (DSW, originally simply Dolly Sods) is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and is part of the Monongahela National Forest of the U.S. Forest Service.
Dolly Sods is a rocky, high-altitude plateau with sweeping vistas and lifeforms normally found much farther north in Canada. To the north, the distinctive landscape of "the Sods" is characterized by stunted ("flagged") trees, wind-carved boulders, heath barrens, grassy meadows created in the last century by logging and fires, and sphagnum bogs that are much older. To the south, a dense cove forest occupies the branched canyon incised by the North Fork of Red Creek.
The name derives from an 18th-century German homesteading family, the Dahles, and a local term for an open mountaintop meadow, a "sods".
Dolly Sods is the highest plateau east of the Mississippi River with altitudes ranging from 2,644 ft (806 m) at the outlet of Red Creek to 4,123 ft (1,257 m) at the top of the eastern edge mountain ridge on the Allegheny Front. Much of the high plateau section lies at nearly 4,000 ft (1,200 m) elevation. Prominent summits within the wilderness are Coal Knob (3,766 ft or 1,148 m), Breathed Mountain (3,848 ft or 1,173 m), and Blackbird Knob (3,960 ft or 1,210 m). The highest point in the immediate area (just outside the Dolly Sods Wilderness area in the Roaring Plains West Wilderness) is Mount Porte Crayon (4,770 ft or 1,450 m). The summit area around Mount Porte Crayon is the largest flat-topped plateau in Eastern North America containing 5.5 square miles (14 km2) above 4,500 ft (1,400 m) elevation.
Dolly Sods is on a ridge crest that forms part of the Eastern Continental Divide. Most of its area is drained by the North Fork of Red Creek, which is a tributary of the Dry Fork River. Via the Dry Fork, Black Fork, Cheat, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. South of Forest Service Route 19 is the adjoining Red Creek–Flatrock–Roaring Plains area, which is drained by the South Fork of Red Creek. Drainage on the east side of the ridge crest flows into the headwaters of the South Branch Potomac River, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The original Dolly Sods was a mountaintop meadow of about 650 acres (3 km2) at the southern end of Rohrbaugh Plains, near the present Dolly Sods Picnic Area. The present-day DSW encompasses some 17,371 acres (70 km2) of U.S. Forest Service land and is part of a larger 32,000-acre (129 km2) area now known as "Dolly Sods". The DSW is bordered by Forest Service Routes 75 and 19 on the east and south sides, respectively. (Since the early 1970s it has been common practice to include the Red Creek Plains, Flatrock Plains, and Roaring Plains areas to the south as part of the greater Dolly Sods area. Formerly, the area encompassed by these three mountaintop flats – all south of FS Rt 19 – was known locally and collectively as Huckleberry Plain.)
To the northeast, DSW is bordered by the Bear Rocks Preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy. The surrounding area was recently added to the wilderness and is known as Dolly Sods North (the high sods). North of Dolly Sods North (and just outside the present DSW) is an area known as Dobbins Slashings—a sub-arctic bog forming the headwaters of Red Creek on Cabin Mountain. Dobbins Slashings has also been proposed for wilderness preservation. In the Canaan Valley to the west, the DSW is adjoined by the 16,000-acre (65 km2) Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Almost all of DSW is in the southeast corner of Tucker County with only very small sections extending into Randolph and Grant Counties.
There are some 47 miles (76 km) of hiking trails within the DSW (see below), many situated along the courses of abandoned railroad grades and old logging roads. The premier viewpoint within the wilderness, affording a vista of the entire Red Creek drainage, is at a set of rocky crags known as Lion's Head Rock. It is reached by an almost three-mile climb from the nearest road. The last quarter mile is an eight-foot-wide bench (an old railroad grade) in the side of an otherwise steep slope. Like the cliffs constituting the eastern edge of the DSW at Rohrbaugh Plains, Lion's Head Rock consists of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate. The Northland Loop Trail is a 0.3-mile (0.5 km) interpretive trail just south of Red Creek Campground on FS Rt 75 which accesses Alder Run Bog a typical, and much studied, northern bog or southern muskeg.
Hub AI
Dolly Sods Wilderness AI simulator
(@Dolly Sods Wilderness_simulator)
Dolly Sods Wilderness
The Dolly Sods Wilderness (DSW, originally simply Dolly Sods) is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and is part of the Monongahela National Forest of the U.S. Forest Service.
Dolly Sods is a rocky, high-altitude plateau with sweeping vistas and lifeforms normally found much farther north in Canada. To the north, the distinctive landscape of "the Sods" is characterized by stunted ("flagged") trees, wind-carved boulders, heath barrens, grassy meadows created in the last century by logging and fires, and sphagnum bogs that are much older. To the south, a dense cove forest occupies the branched canyon incised by the North Fork of Red Creek.
The name derives from an 18th-century German homesteading family, the Dahles, and a local term for an open mountaintop meadow, a "sods".
Dolly Sods is the highest plateau east of the Mississippi River with altitudes ranging from 2,644 ft (806 m) at the outlet of Red Creek to 4,123 ft (1,257 m) at the top of the eastern edge mountain ridge on the Allegheny Front. Much of the high plateau section lies at nearly 4,000 ft (1,200 m) elevation. Prominent summits within the wilderness are Coal Knob (3,766 ft or 1,148 m), Breathed Mountain (3,848 ft or 1,173 m), and Blackbird Knob (3,960 ft or 1,210 m). The highest point in the immediate area (just outside the Dolly Sods Wilderness area in the Roaring Plains West Wilderness) is Mount Porte Crayon (4,770 ft or 1,450 m). The summit area around Mount Porte Crayon is the largest flat-topped plateau in Eastern North America containing 5.5 square miles (14 km2) above 4,500 ft (1,400 m) elevation.
Dolly Sods is on a ridge crest that forms part of the Eastern Continental Divide. Most of its area is drained by the North Fork of Red Creek, which is a tributary of the Dry Fork River. Via the Dry Fork, Black Fork, Cheat, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. South of Forest Service Route 19 is the adjoining Red Creek–Flatrock–Roaring Plains area, which is drained by the South Fork of Red Creek. Drainage on the east side of the ridge crest flows into the headwaters of the South Branch Potomac River, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The original Dolly Sods was a mountaintop meadow of about 650 acres (3 km2) at the southern end of Rohrbaugh Plains, near the present Dolly Sods Picnic Area. The present-day DSW encompasses some 17,371 acres (70 km2) of U.S. Forest Service land and is part of a larger 32,000-acre (129 km2) area now known as "Dolly Sods". The DSW is bordered by Forest Service Routes 75 and 19 on the east and south sides, respectively. (Since the early 1970s it has been common practice to include the Red Creek Plains, Flatrock Plains, and Roaring Plains areas to the south as part of the greater Dolly Sods area. Formerly, the area encompassed by these three mountaintop flats – all south of FS Rt 19 – was known locally and collectively as Huckleberry Plain.)
To the northeast, DSW is bordered by the Bear Rocks Preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy. The surrounding area was recently added to the wilderness and is known as Dolly Sods North (the high sods). North of Dolly Sods North (and just outside the present DSW) is an area known as Dobbins Slashings—a sub-arctic bog forming the headwaters of Red Creek on Cabin Mountain. Dobbins Slashings has also been proposed for wilderness preservation. In the Canaan Valley to the west, the DSW is adjoined by the 16,000-acre (65 km2) Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Almost all of DSW is in the southeast corner of Tucker County with only very small sections extending into Randolph and Grant Counties.
There are some 47 miles (76 km) of hiking trails within the DSW (see below), many situated along the courses of abandoned railroad grades and old logging roads. The premier viewpoint within the wilderness, affording a vista of the entire Red Creek drainage, is at a set of rocky crags known as Lion's Head Rock. It is reached by an almost three-mile climb from the nearest road. The last quarter mile is an eight-foot-wide bench (an old railroad grade) in the side of an otherwise steep slope. Like the cliffs constituting the eastern edge of the DSW at Rohrbaugh Plains, Lion's Head Rock consists of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate. The Northland Loop Trail is a 0.3-mile (0.5 km) interpretive trail just south of Red Creek Campground on FS Rt 75 which accesses Alder Run Bog a typical, and much studied, northern bog or southern muskeg.