Spruce Mountain

Spruce Mountain is a high ridge in eastern West Virginia and the loftiest ridge in the Allegheny Mountains, culminating at Spruce Knob, 4,863 feet above sea level, the highest point in West Virginia, the Allegheny range, and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Its upper slopes preserve a boreal red spruce environment unusual in the southern Appalachians, with wind-shaped krummholz, boulder fields, and meadows. The ridge was formed from ancient marine sediments later folded, faulted, and exposed by erosion during Appalachian mountain building. Though much original forest was cut around the turn of the 20th century, surviving old growth, recovering woods, wildlife, and extensive trails now define it as both a natural landmark and a place of renewal.

West Virginia · United States