Graveyard Fields/ Blue Ridge Mountains: The Great Maze (Non-Illinois post)

This was the midpoint of the Blue Ridge Mountains trip of June, 2015.   Graveyard Fields is a popular hiking area southeast of Asheville in the Pisgah National Forest.  As we got out of the parking lot, we walked down into a heath bald.

Heath balds are where various large members of the Heath plant family (Ericaceae) dominate over nutrient-poor, acidic soils.  In this region, rosebay rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum) grew overhead.  It was cool, wet, and shaded beneath the thick evergreen leaves of the rhodies.

This is essentially what the interior of a heath bald looks like.  No wonder the local name for such a place is laurel hell.  It is an enormous maze of shrubbery.

 We reached a moderately sized creek with several rapids as the water essentially flowed over bedrock.  The entire area was tranquil and peaceful.  Fog hung in the air, but never quite descended and eventually cleared off.

Here is the same rapid from a different angle.  Evidently, this area must flood occasionally for the rocks to be so bare as they are.  

  Bluets (Houstonia spp.) lined the trail.  Also, this is an excellent picture to demonstrate why this area is known as Graveyard Fields.  Exposed tree roots and rocks were everywhere along the trail.  While I loved the area, this was certainly one of the more unpleasant trails I have hiked.

 In an acidic wet area, of course, clubmosses proliferated. This is likely Ground-pine or prickly tree-clubmoss ([Dendro]lycopodium dendroideum), a rare species even in the Appalachians.  Three species of this genus live in this area, and all of them are hard to tell apart.  All three of these species are also present in northeastern Illinois, especially in the upper Kankakee River Valley.

By contrast, here is one of the world's most common plants,  the Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum) a species found on every continent except Antartica.  In Central Illinois, it is present in the Sangamon River Valley.  Bracken is a pioneer species of partially-shaded moist acidic areas.  It is also highly toxic and is often regarded as a pest.

We stepped down the creek to view a waterfall.   Here , the well-worn bedrock met a jumble of boulders and formed a natural playground.

Unlike the portion of the creek above the waterfall, here more  brush closed in around the sides.  The heath bald was replaced by low forest.  Water wound its way through the maze of boulders.

We paused here for awhile to watch the sheets of water come cascading down.  The water was cool as this area is about five thousand feet in elevation.  It misted from both the waterfall and the overhead clouds, which threatened to rain at any time.

This area had a large amount of wildlife.  See if you can spot the crayfish's tail in the above picture.  Then I nearly stepped on an animal I had spent most of the trip looking for, as it sat happily along the gravel.  I assume it was happy.  We certainly were when we saw it.

This unknown lungless salamander species (Plethodon spp.) is one of dozens of species that can be found in the Southern Appalachians.  Many are restricted in range to a few mountaintops, as they live in the cool northern forests on top of the highest mountains.   This one, unusually, was out in the open.  It soon ran surprisingly fast into a nearby pool.  We let it be.  If anyone knows what species this is, please let me know.   It was dark grey to black with light sand-colored spots all over.

Yet another millipede, one of the five hundred species in the area,  crawled along the path as we continued our hike.  This was the longest hike of the trip, and we felt it as we went through shrub-covered meadows, dense northern hardwoods and heath balds.  Some sort of berry bushes (Rubus spp.) bloomed nearby. The area is home to  black bears, especially in the fall when berries ripen.  We saw no evidence of any bears, however, on our hike.  Then again, we are from Central Illinois, and perhaps we just didn't know what evidence of a bear would look like.

 The clouds opened briefly, and we saw the surrounding mountains, the tallest in all of eastern North America.  A few lone spruces grew out of the meadows.

The area used to be a spruce-fir forest, as grows on the surrounding mountains.  However, it was logged, and parts of it blew over in the early 1900s.  The stumps on their sides were said to resemble headstones, thus the name Graveyard Fields.  Then fires burned the stumps and soil, removing most of the forest.

Here is a patch of red spruce- Frasier fir forest on top of a nearby mountain.   A relic of a time when this area was far colder, these forests only grow above 5,500 feet in elevation.  In the 1950s. balsam woolly adegid, a closely related species to the hemlock woolly adelgid, killed off most of the Frasier Firs (Abies frasieri)  Between that and the fire, there is little chance of returning this area to spruce-fir forest.

Between meadows were several creeks.  This area was a maze of improvised trails and campsites as well, making it an area that was difficult to navigate.  We got lost several times.  Some sort of small trout species lives in the creeks, and in my attempts to photograph these shy fish, I nearly ended up in the creek with them.

It was a long hike over rough boulders. Apparently, in North Carolina terms, this is a moderate hike.  In Illinois terms, this is a very difficult hike.  I would hate to see a North Carolina difficult hike.  We finally reached the second waterfall, all having determined we would stick to visiting the first and lower  waterfall in the future.

This is actually about seventy feet tall,  In this area, as in the last, the rock is extremely hard and while there has been erosion, the rock still holds resistant to the water.

 A huge maze of boulders rested downstream, with small pools connected by rapids between the jumbled rocks.

I walked up closer to the waterfall.  In order to do so, you have to be careful, as the darker part of the rocks are full of slimy algae and you will slip if you try to walk on those.  I hopped from dry spot to dry spot, somehow not tripping.  This is my definition of a good time.  After a bit, we went back down, following the main creek at times.

 None of this was reminiscent of Illinois.

 We hiked through a couple miles of brush, spotting several new plants along the way.  This is dog-hobble (Leucanthoe fontanesiana), a  Southern Appalachian bush indicative of acidic soils. Its stems arch over the ground, giving the plant its name.  I had never seen it before this hike.

 All kinds of ferns grew along the trail, but most of them were familiar to me and I took no pictures.  However, the Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) is always a pleasure to encounter.  These ferns are found around all edges of Illinois, but not in my specific area, sadly.  I assume Central Illinois lacks the moist acidic soil these ferns enjoy.

 As you can see, the terrain was mostly just shrubs, grasses and ferns, with the occasional bluets for color.  The creeks that ran through the area showed how the area had changed over time.

Underneath the shade of the heath bald again as we walked back into that area, I spotted a flower on the unknown Trillium species I had seen everywhere.

 The Appalachian specialty Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum) is not found anywhere in Illinois, and I was lucky to see one just out of flower.  A few weeks before, this plant would have had a bright white flower with dark red interior markings.  It is the most attractive and hardest to grow Trillium species, and is often wild-collected.  For that reason, if you ever see Painted Trilliums for sale in a plant nursery, assume they were dug up in the wild and don't buy them.  You can see the ferns and clubmosses in the vicinity of the picture also.

This area was quite humid and the moss and lichens were everywhere, growing on top of each other such as in this picture.

This is essentially the sort of trail in the heath bald.  Here the roots and rocks had diminshed, to be replaced by mud and claustrophobia.

Rhododendrons bloomed all around us. These are the dominant plants on a heath bald, and as they are in the heath family, they give the area its name.  This area resembled the Linville Falls overlook trail as rosebay rhododendron blocked out most of the light.

 Here again is Goodyera pubescens, the Rattlesnake Plaintain orchid.  This area had the largest colonies of this plant I have seen.  Rattlesnake plantains, painted trilliums, mosses, clubmosses, galax, and a few scattered ferns were the only plants growing under the dense shade of the rosebay rhododendrons.

 Overhead, of course, the area was far more colorful as we got out of the maze above it and back in the parking lot.  You can see the short northern hardwood forest behind that grows around the creeks in this area.  We drove off along the Blue Ridge Parkway, on our way to Dupont State Forest.  We stopped several times for pictures.

 We climbed into the highest part of the Parkway, where it winds amongst spruce-fir forests.

 Even the dead Frasier firs like gray skeletons on the hillside could little distract from the stunning views.  We saw small white patches along the side of the road, and realized this was the remains of snow, even though it was June.  Where else in the American South will snow be found in June?

 To be fair, when I picture the South, this is nothing like it at all.  I believe the fir is on the left in the picture above, and the spruce is on the right.  We stopped near a large seep complex on the side of a mountain to eat our lunch.

I have no idea what most of these plants are.  I had heard of some carnivorous plants being present along seeps in the Blue Ridge mountains, but I saw none.

 Here is the seep from a different angle. On the other side of the road is an overlook, and a severe drop-off.  Looking down the road, we could see the boreal forest that grew above it.  This is as close to an alpine area as these mountains get. They are too warm to have a treeline.

Overall, this was one of the best vacations I have ever taken.  I someday will go back in early May to see the spring flowers in full bloom, but even when we went, the area was so diverse that it was spectacular.  This is the sort of place I want to work someday.  Hopefully, in a few years, North Carolina's natural department is hiring...