Spruce Knob
| Spruce Knob | |
|---|---|
Spruce Knob summit
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 4,863 ft (1,482 m) NAVD 88 |
| Prominence | 2,781 ft (848 m) |
| Listing | |
| Coordinates | 38°42′00″N 79°31′58″W / 38.699867514°N 79.532791614°WCoordinates: 38°42′00″N 79°31′58″W / 38.699867514°N 79.532791614°W |
| Geography | |
 Spruce Knob
Pendleton County, West Virginia, U.S.
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| Parent range | Allegheny Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Spruce Knob |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route |
Drive-up via  FR 104 |
Spruce Knob, at 4,863 feet (1,482 m), is the highest point in the state of West Virginia and the summit of Spruce Mountain, the highest peak in the Allegheny Mountains.
The summit of Spruce Knob has a definite alpine feel, much more so than most other mountains of the Southern Appalachians. The upper few hundred feet are covered in a dense spruce forest, a relic boreal forest environment similar to those found in northern New England and Canada. The summit is accessible both via trails and a paved Forest Service road, and is crowned with a stone lookout tower amid a mixture of boulder fields, meadows and trees. A handicap-accessible nature trail half a mile (0.8 km) long circles the topmost part of the mountain. High west winds near the summit have gnarled the spruce there like Krummholz, flagged with limbs only on their leeward (eastward) side.
As is typical in the southern Appalachians, the highest point on a ridge is frequently referred to as a knob or dome. Spruce Knob is the highest point along a ridge known as the Allegheny Front. Dropping steeply to the east, it offers views of the Germany Valley and North Fork Mountain; to the west is the Allegheny Plateau. It also is the highest point in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Like the rest of this part of the Appalachian Mountains, Spruce Knob began to form with the breakup of Pangea I between 570 and 500 mya. The African Plate separated from the North American Plate opening the Proto-Atlantic Ocean. The North American Plate stretched and thinned, allowing it to backfill with a shallow inland sea. About 50 million years later, with the Taconic Orogeny, the two plates reversed course and began to move towards each other. Mid-ocean subduction created a volcanic arc (now known as the Blue Ridge Mountains) which eventually collided with the North American Plate. The arc fused onto the continent and the land to the west was uplifted.
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Wikipedia