Blue Ridge Expeditions: Dismal Falls, Bland County, VA

The 4.3 mile hike on July 19th had gloomy, rainy weather, but the four cheerful participants made the hike to the Falls full of fun and frolic. Guide Amy Roberts and Master Naturalist volunteer Linda Gette led local and out of state participants through the Appalachian hickory-oak forest to the lovely 400 million year old falls.  We found some unidentified fossils in one of the boulder fields, two chicken of the woods fungi, an eastern red-spotted newt, and some American chestnut coppice trying to survive. Some of the rhododendron was still in bloom, and we had a lesson on distinguishing American Chestnut, Chestnut Oak, and Chinquapin.