Exploring Grindstone

This forest chews lava, and exhales the whispers of glaciers...

Sipping from rock once fuming and flowing

Drawing from deep water pebble-pimpled silt,

Splitting muck-mired cobbles of glacial mowings

Benefacting cycles of rise and wilt...

This forest

chews

lava,

and

exha

les

the

whispers

of

gla

ciers...

-D. Floyd

On Sunday the 12th,

a mother, a father, and a son explored the forest at Grindstone Campground on the north side of Mount Rogers. We were there to 'see what we could see'. Our walk took us around the short Grindstone loop trail, the 'Whispering Waters nature trail'. As has been experienced in the past, the beauty is blinding and the diversity overwhelming. One passes through at least two distinct forest types and transitions from glacial lake deposits to lava flow remains.

The forest along the upper portion of the trail is truly unique, as it is dominated by linden, ash, and cucumber magnolia. The great number of seeps along the trail provide for excellent exploration and the make-up of the forest shifts around every corner!

Here's a small bit of what we saw:

Geology:

Rock type #1, near the beginning of the trail, is :

Konnarock Formation

;

Maroon diamictite, rhythmite, and arkose.

These are rocks that were deposited in habitats that included deep icy lakes and glacial activity. They are the silicified (fancy word for 'turned into rock') remains of muds, silts, pebbles and cobbles carried by glaciers. Interestingly, the stones seen in the silicified mud were dropped into that muck and consist of materials from formations nearby...ryholites, greenstones, and granites. This makes sense because the glaciers would have been eroding these materials from the land during that time...and, it was a landscape devoid of plants and animals!...mountains and valleys of pure rock, silt, and sand!

Rock type #2, as one heads up the trail the rocks change to:

Mount Rogers Formation;

Phenocryst-poor rhyolite.

These rocks are a dark purple, and are the results of lava flows! Mount Rogers, White Top, and Pond Mtn. (NC) form the core of what was a massive and explosive volcanic complex. These once towering volcanoes have seen a lot of erosion, and have even found themselves buried beneath miles of sediment at different points in the geologic past. But today, we are afforded a view of these ancient volcanoes. It is worth noting here that this rock known as "Rhyolite" is high in silica, and breaks kind of like glass (chonchoidal fracture). This made it a choice material for use in making spears, knives, and other tools during prehistoric times. Somewhere on these mountains hides ancient quarries used by Native Americans!

Primary source:

Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, 1993, Geologic Map of Virginia.

Trees and shrubs:

chestnut oak,

Quercus prinus

northern red oak

,

Quercus rubra

red maple,

Acer rubrum

sugar maple,

Acer saccharum

striped m

aple,

Acer pensylvanicum

black cherry,

Prunus serotina

yellow birch,

Betula alleghaniensis

black birch,

Betula lenta

American beech,

Fagus grandifolia

Fraser magnolia,

Magnolia fraseri

cucumber magnolia

,

Magnolia acuminata

witchhazel

,

Hamamelis virginiana

viburnum

sp.

yellow buckeye,

Aesculus flava

green ash,

Fraxinus pennsylvanica

white ash

,

Fraxinus americana

American linden,

Tilia americana

rhododendron

sp.

yellow poplar

,

Liriodendron tulipifera

eastern hemlock,

Tsuga canadensis

...and, maybe

Carolina Hemlock

,

Tsuga caroliniana

(need to revisit the site to verify)

Scientific name reference:

www.plants.usda.gov

Two unidentified species of the Lycopodiaceae family.

Smaller plants:

ramps,

Allium tricoccum

white baneberry,

Actaea pachypoda

Solomon's seal,

Polygonatum sp.

false Solomon's seal,

Smilacina racemosa

Pipsissewa

,

Chimaphila maculata

Dutchmans pipe,

Aristolochia macrophylla

ground cedar,

Lycopodium sp.

clubmoss

,

Huperzia sp.

partridge Berry,

Mitchella repens

white snakeroot

,

Ageratina altissima

black cohosh,

Actaea racemosa (syn. Cimicifuga r.)

blue cohosh,

Caulophyllum thalictroides

yellow mandarin,

Disporum lanuginosum

jack in the pulpit

,

Arisaema triphyllum

Curtis's goldenrod

,

Solidago curtisii

**

Two aster species remain unidentified, see images below.

**Two Lycopodiaceae species remain unidentified. see image above.

My identification sources:

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, by Lawrence Newcomb

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers

www.hiltonpond.org

www.plants.usda.gov

On the way home

we could not resist stopping to take in a phenomenal meadow. Willows, hawthorns, alders, cinnamon ferns, golden rods, ironweeds, ladies' tresses and butterflies galore. This little boggy area is very close to Grindstone Campground and can be thoroughly enjoyed from the road. I suspect there are many locations in the Grayson highlands area that are similar to this one, as it is maintained as pasture.

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