High Knob, the summit of Stone Mountain near Norton in southwestern Virginia, is one of the southern Appalachians’ broadest and most distinctive mountains. Rising 4,223 feet on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, it is a geological pivot tied to the Cumberland Mountain Overthrust Block, the Powell Valley anticline, and fault systems associated with Virginia’s richest cave region. Its summit strongly shapes local weather, making it among the rainiest and snowiest places in Virginia and fostering unusual biological diversity. Long valued for sweeping views into several states, High Knob has remained a destination through successive lookout towers, including the current one completed in 2014.