October 1995

Roan High Knob

Roan Mountain in October. That's Carver's Gap down at the road running from right to left. North Carolina is on the left and Tennessee is on the right. We are looking almost due west here from near the top of Round Bald to Roan High Knob which is covered with trees. You can't see the gap from the very top of the Bald. The Balds on Roan Mountain are very unusual. You'll notice trees and lots of vegetation, much of it rhododendrons, on the other side of the gap, but on this side there are no trees, only grass. No one is exactly sure why no trees grow on the Balds, but they just don't grow and evidently never have. Many studies have been made of this phenomenon, and no one has come up with a satisfactory explanation. If you are interested in Roan Mountain and its history, there's a good little book on it called "Roan Mountain, A Passage Of Time" by Jennifer Bauer Wilson, a Park Ranger at Roan Mountain State Park.

The high peak on the other side of the gap is Roan High Knob, the highest point on the mountain at 6285 feet. The road that winds around to the left branches off to the site of the Cloudland Hotel near the top, but that's another story in itself. The road ends at the rhododendron gardens, the scene of the annual Rhododendron Festival.

This year was the first time I had ever been up Roan Mountain when it was not surrounded by clouds or fog, so I was looking forward to getting some good pictures. John Waite, his son Brandon and I drove to the top in his convertible (it was quite chilly I might add) under a cloudless blue October sky to take some photos and walk to the site of the old Cloudland, only to be told by a ranger that the road up there (the one that's across the gap) had closed for the winter only a few hours before we got there, and that we couldn't go up. We were greatly perturbed. We had to settle for climbing up Round Bald (one of the 3 or 4 balds in the Roan Mountain chain). It didn't look like that bad of a climb because it rounds off at the top and you can't see how far it is to the top from down in the gap. This thing was worse than a treadmill test, and the altitude makes you have to stop frequently. I made it to the top, but it was much easier on the way down. You could see from horizon to horizon that day. And it was the windiest place I've ever been. They say it always is, though. The wind had to be a constant 20 to 30 mph. A fun experience, try it if you're in the area. There's rental cabins down at the State Park closer to the town of Roan Mountain.