May 2024

Grassy Ridge, Roan Highlands, Tennessee/North Carolina. From the photographer: “Each year there’s a three- to four-day window when the delicate magenta blossoms of Catawba rhododendron paint the shrub-dominated ridgelines of Roan Mountain with vibrant color. It’s every photographer’s dream—certainly mine—to align this short bloom period with interesting atmospheric conditions. On this morning, everything came together. Following a three-mile, dark hike over open, grassy balds along the Appalachian Trail, I perched myself high atop a natural garden of flowering rhododendron. As the sun began to rise from the east, it seemed to pull an inverted cloud from the west ever so softly over Roan High Knob.”

Summer in the Mountains: A Photo Essay

It’s cooler up here. And spectacular both up close and far away. Our contributing photographers have the proof!
skywatch

May/June Skywatch: The Fluffy Surprise at the Tip of Leo’s Tail

Nearly overhead in the early evening twinkle the faint stars of a frequently overlooked attraction—the Coma Berenices Star Cluster.
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West Jefferson Gets a New Park

Culminating a nine-year effort, the Blue Ridge Conservancy recently transferred 152 acres on Paddy Mountain to the town of West Jefferson, North Carolina.
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‘Dolly Experience’ Debuts in May

The Dolly Parton Experience re-imagines what was called Dollywood Boulevard: One stop presents Parton‘s wardrobe.
Jeremy B. Jones. Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland. (Blair, 2014). 253 pp.

Book Note – Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland

by Jeremy B. Jones. (Blair, 2014). 253 pp.

Departments

Behind Blue Ridge Country

Even More Sweet Virginia Breezes

Casually cruising to Claytor Lake in southwest Virginia, I felt like I had come home – back to where it

CALENDAR OF EVENTS