Little Wilson Creek Wilderness

Little Wilson Creek Wilderness in southwestern Virginia is a 5,461-acre protected mountain landscape designated by Congress in 1984 under the Eastern Wilderness Act and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Set on a high shelf in the Blue Ridge, it includes peaks, grassy balds, steep streams, and rare high-elevation plant communities, with exceptional biological diversity ranging from oak-hickory forest to spruce-fir habitat. Rare plants, northern flying squirrels, and more than 21 salamander species have been recorded there. Though now remote in character, much of the forest regrew after early 20th-century logging and burning, and traces of that past remain in an old railroad grade and the place name Scales.

Virginia · United States