A piece of northern Canada covers a high, flat ridge in eastern West Virginia. Part of the Allegheny Front, the eastern edge of the Appalachian Plateau, this broad mountain hosts a boreal ecosystem, characterized by red spruce, alder, mountain ash, upland heath and sphagnum bogs. Though squarely in the Temperate Zone, the plateau's high elevation (averaging 4000 feet), blustery winds and copious precipitation (55 inches per year) have maintained the periglacial climate of the Pleistocene. Upslope storms from the east and west, dump up to 150 inches of snow on the summit from fall into spring.
Known as the Dolly Sods, this unique area is named for German immigrants, the Dahle family, who settled on the ridge in the 1800s; the term "sods" refers to the grassy clearings on which they grazed their sheep. Once covered with virgin, spruce forest, the summit is now a mosaic of woodlands, wet meadows and bogs; in addition to the plants mentioned above, visitors will find azaleas, rhodo-dendrons, sundew, blueberry shrubs, huckleberry and cranberry. The rugged slopes of the plateau harbor Canadian hemlock, yellow birch, black cherry, mountain laurel and a variety of ferns. Resident wildlife includes black bear, fishers, bobcat, red and gray fox, ruffed grouse, wild turkey and snowshoe hares.
Covering more than 30,000 acres, most of Dolly Sods, which lies along the Eastern Continental Divide, is drained by Red Creek, part of the Ohio River watershed. The ridge is accessed by graveled roads and 26-miles of trails; a third of this fragile ecosystem has been protected as a National Wilderness Area since 1975. Used as an artillary range during WWII, live shells are still occasionally found in the area and visitors are advised not to handle military artifacts. Dolly Sods is best reached via Route 28, 10 miles west of Petersburg, or Route 32, south of Canaan Valley State Park.
