Tanawha

I hiked up Tanawha today. It's popularly known as Grandfather Mountain. Once a kind of amusement park, it's now one of the state's newest state parks. Part of it is still operated as a quasi-amusement park, but most of it is kept in a wild state. I need to head back and explore some more of the trails again.

One of the main reasons I went was to settle my own curiosity over whether or not the peak ever birthed a local glacier. After viewing the formation on the mountain known as "the Boone Bowl", my impression is that this feature was indeed created by a glacier. It has most of the hallmarks of a glacial cirque. I can't prove it, of course. But that is my impression.

I'll post more information tomorrow...

On one of the lower peaks of Tanawha. The highest point far behind me is Calloway Peak, the tallest bit of the mountain (5,946 feet above sea level).

This was from another clifftop view lower on the mountain. Looking up at what I think was, at one time, a glacial headwall.

You can see the aptly named "Boone Bowl" formed from the left to the right of the photo. I can easily envision a southern glacier having formed here at the height of the last Ice Age.