Bear Rocks are a widely recognized symbol of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

wilderness and among the most frequently photographed places in the state. They are a well-known landmark on the eastern edge of the plateau that includes the

Dolly Sods Wilderness The Dolly Sods Wilderness – originally simply Dolly Sods – is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, US, and is part of the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Dolly Sods ...

. They sit in a high-elevation

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

punctuated with wind-carved

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

outcrops and is home to more than a dozen rare plant and animal species. Situated on the crest of the

Allegheny Front The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the ...

, Bear Rocks afford vistas over the

South Branch Potomac River The South Branch Potomac River has its headwaters in northwestern Highland County, Virginia near Hightown along the eastern edge of the Allegheny Front. After a river distance of ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolu ...

. Visibility can extend eastward to the

Shenandoah National Park Shenandoah National Park (often ) is an American national park that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The park is long and narrow, with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, and the ...

in Virginia. The Bear Rocks Preserve is a tract owned and preserved by

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

Location

Bear Rocks consists of a group of rock outcroppings on the

, an escarpment that in this area provides about two thousand feet of vertical relief and forms the Eastern Continental Divide. To the east, looking out over the South Branch of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

, which drains into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

via the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

, there are breathtaking views where seven mountain ridges are visible on a clear day extending into Virginia. On the clearest days you can see

Hawksbill Mountain Hawksbill Mountain is a mountain with an elevation of . Marking the border between Madison County and Page County in Virginia, the summit of Hawksbill Mountain is the highest point in Shenandoah National Park, as well as the highest point in bo ...

and Stony Man, the highest peaks in

. To the west, water drains into

Dolly Sods The Dolly Sods Wilderness – originally simply Dolly Sods – is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, US, and is part of the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Dolly Sods ...

towards Red Creek, which eventually flows to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

via the

Dry Fork River The Dry Fork is a tributary of the Black Fork of the Cheat River in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. Via the Black Fork, the Cheat, and the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi Rive ...

, Black Fork, Cheat, Mongahela,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. Farther north along the ridge of the Front are two more salients, Stack Rocks and Haystack Rocks.

Climate

Bear Rocks is known for its cool climate,

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

appearance and northern wildlife. Strong prevailing winds bring clouds from the west. While rising to clear the ridge of the Allegheny Front they cool, causing mist and rain totaling more than per year. During the winter of 2003, of snow fell in the area, although is more typical. The trees and shrubs become broken downward and gnarled along the ridge from the drying winds, the chilling

rime Rime may refer to: *Rime ice, ice that forms when water droplets in fog freeze to the outer surfaces of objects, such as trees Rime is also an alternative spelling of "rhyme" as a noun: *Syllable rime, term used in the study of phonology in ling ...

frost and the heavy ice glazing and snow. Along the rim are stunted red spruce trees with flag-formed limbs pointing to the east – a result of the almost constant and often high-velocity winds.

Ecology

One-quarter to one-half (400 to 800 m) a mile below the ridge lies a moist forest of

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

and hemlock, with a floor blanketed in

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s, mountain laurel and rhododendron thickets. But on the broad ridge top where the climate is the most severe, the lush vegetation gives way to stunted, scattered trees, open heath land, and

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

plants left over from the ice ages. Many of the plants and animals here are typically found in the North, such as

snowshoe hare The snowshoe hare (''Lepus americanus''), also called the varying hare or snowshoe rabbit, is a species of hare found in North America. It has the name "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal's feet prevent it from sin ...

, saw-whet owls, boreal red-backed voles, and

fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

. It is also a prime

raptor Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on ...

and warbler-watching site during autumn migration and a popular berry-picking spot in midsummer. The area around Bear Rocks supports subalpine heathlands dominated by shrubs such as blueberries, huckleberries, mountain laurel, azalea, and rhododendron. Groves of stunted red spruce, flagged by ice and wind, outcrops of the

Pottsville conglomerate The Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States. The Pottsville F ...

, grassy meadows, and cranberry bogs also occur. There are stunted small groves of red spruce trying to make a tortured comeback here and there in the wind and coldheath barrens of huckleberries, blueberries, mountain laurel, mountain holly, speckled alder and other waist-high plants. In several places the heath barrens, also called "huckleberry plains" or " roaring plains", give way to natural balds of mountain oat grass that predate the devastation wrought by logging and fires during the late 19th century.

Geology

Large, striking and uniquely shaped white sandstone and quartz rocks are found throughout the Bear Rocks Preserve area. Erosion has carved bowl-shaped cavities in many of these wind- and rain-sculpted sandstone boulders and these cavities are often filled with water (or ice) and algae. In addition to the sculpted boulders are "rock streams" formed during glacial periods. The freeze-thaw cycles heaved and split rock, creating rock streams up to wide and hundreds of feet long. Other rock patterns include polygons and circles.

Other information

Informal trails weave across the Bear Rocks Preserve. An extensive trail system occurs on the adjacent national forest lands, including the Dolly Sods Wilderness. Bear Rocks' natural heathlands and open grass balds were originally recorded in 1746 by a survey party that included

Peter Jefferson Peter Jefferson (February 29, 1708 – August 17, 1757) was a planter, cartographer and politician in colonial Virginia best known for being the father of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. The "Fry-Jefferson Map", creat ...

, father of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

References

External links

Nature Conservancy page
{{Protected Areas of West Virginia Nature Conservancy preserves Protected areas of Grant County, West Virginia Protected areas of Tucker County, West Virginia Monongahela National Forest Rock formations of West Virginia Nature reserves in West Virginia Landforms of Grant County, West Virginia Landforms of Tucker County, West Virginia IUCN Category V