A Family Adventure


Tyson, Emilie & Isaac

Rocky Ridge Rock Scrambling

June 16, 2020
Emilie Phillips

We are down visiting my parents in the mountains of West Virginia. It’s nice being home, even if it rained most of the week. But I suppose that’s how you get vibrant green but treacherous sphagnum bogs, carnivorous sundews, and meadows full of lavish ferns, laurel, and azaleas. We picked a loop to the northern end of the Dolly Sods Wilderness where there are rocks for Isaac to play on and lots of open views. My parents showed us some rock formations that I wasn’t familiar with. Isaac explored and found even more tunnels than they knew. I fit through every tunnel he found. He surprised me by doing every climb I did. The trees have grown up some since I was a kid, but the soil is still thin and brittle from logging and fires over a hundred years ago. We rarely see the azaleas in bloom. They seem to only bloom for a few days. This time we found both pink early azaleas and orange flame azaleas. It has been rather cold, so the plants are late. The laurel are still tight pink and red buds.

All Photos

GPS Track

Written June 17, 2020, updated August 2, 2020