Perusing Google Earth one evening, I noticed some unusual landforms and made plans to investigate. Hiking
to the mountain's high elevations, I came across some wet cliff environments and a nice spray cliff community.
Visit to first cliff:
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Climbing the mountain, I saw this heart-shaped branch scar
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The bears must like this area; I saw several piles of fresh bear scat.
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View from top of the first cliff, looking toward Lake Chatuge, with Bell Knob to the left.
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Another view, looking at more of Lake Chatuge and the valley of Upper Bell Creek.
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From the cliff top...
The water flow as it approaches the brink of the cliff, looking generally down into the valley of Bell Creek.
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A portion of the cliff face, from the right side.
The configuration made it difficult to get any photographs that show the entire cliff face.
Also, the shallow soils clinging to the rock are too steep, saturated and fragile to walk on.
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Lower section of cliff
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Water dripping at base of main cliff
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Cliff base from left side
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Wider view of cliff base
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Heading home, I stopped by another known cliff area in the shadow of Jump-off Ridge.
It's hard to see the perspective in this photo, but the view is looking almost straight down a fissure in the cliff rocks.
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Boulders in the upper region of this cliff
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Looking down at our house location.
Last winter, I got a clear view of our house from here, but there were still enough leaves on the trees to obscure it.
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A week later, I made a visit to the second site, a nice spray cliff community.
It is some distance from the previously shown cliff area.
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On the long hike up, I stopped to photograph several tree lichens:
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Old Man's Beard (Usnea sp.)
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As well as this one on a rock...
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These boulders were adjacent to small, steep creek branch (where I was standing).
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A short while later, I came across another branch with several small water cascades
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A nice boulder-field environment higher up the mountain
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One of several springs at a rare flat spot.
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First approach to the spray cliff
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Just one section of the spray cliff community...
I spotted some uncommon plants growing here; can't wait to revisit in the spring.
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This is what creates a spray cliff environment.
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The entire area was seeping with moisture, even where there was no falling water.
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These same cliffs were prominent from far below during a frigid spell in January.
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