Monadnocks!

We had a really weird day. So weird that I'll have to write about it. Just some other time.

In the interim:

Monadnocks! What are they? And how does Mother Nature make them?

North Carolina has a number of monadnocks. In a nutshell, a monadnock is an isolated mountain, usually standing as an area of relatively high relief and surrounded by a large area of relatively low relief. Most monadnocks are formed because they consist of tough rock that is surrounded by soft material. The soft stuff is carried down slope to the sea, while the tough rock remains, eventually revealing itself and standing in some cases as a mountain.

The term is named for Mount Monadnock in NEW HAMPSHIRE (I had it listed as in Vermont...DUH!). We have a number of impressive monadnocks here in North Carolina, and quite a few of them are so special that the state has protected them as official state parks. Thus, we have Crowders Mountain State Park, Pilot Mountain State Park, and Hanging Rock State Park. Most monadocks are so isolated that they don't have an active aquifer associated with them. But Hanging Rock is actually part of a complete range of monadnocks (called the Sauratown Mountains) that have their own systems of streams.

Last year I visited Hanging Rock State Park, so here is your geology lesson in photos and video. Enjoy.

This formation is part of a huge cliff face called Cooke's Wall. Visible from the famous summit called Hanging Rock, it is proof that a race of space-faring apes once colonized Earth.

I caught this view of Hanging Rock on the hike to the summit.

A great view from the top. What looks like a road below is actually the very wide and graded trail leading to the park's signature mountaintop.

Looking up at the park's namesake: The Hanging Rock itself.

 

Although the quartzite capstone that created the range of monadnocks is tough, as you can see, water eventually has its way with the stuff.

The State of North Carolina has lavished much attention and infrastructure on the park. Here is part of the very nice and complicated trail that leads down to the park's most spectacular waterfall (one of several in the park).

I like the waterfalls in the park. They're all located down in cool, shady grottoes.

No Pesky Humans Allowed!

People aren't allowed to go everywhere in our parks. This is such a case:

The summit of Pilot Mountain State Park is off limits to people. Pilot Mountain is one of the few peaks in the eastern USA that doesn't have a walk-up route. That is, you can't get there by just walking on two legs. At some point you have to use all four limbs to make it to the summit. The routes to the top are anywhere from Class V technical routes, to Class IV to Class III (scrambling). There is no casual stroll to the top.

However, no one is allowed up there. The cliffs that surround it, and the area at the pinnacle, are prime raven and raptor nesting areas. For that reason no one is allowed to summit the peak. Back in the day when the mountain was under private ownership and part of a tourist park, there was a ladder that took the adventurous person to the uppermost elevations. But now that option is gone.

And I like the fact that no one is allowed on that nub of real estate. The critters should have a place to live without being bothered.

Sometimes called "the Green Muffin".

Summit Off Limits

One type of mountain here in the eastern USA that I quite enjoy looking at and hiking are monadnocks. Simply, a monadnock is an isolated area of relatively high terrain surrounded by a larger area of relatively low terrain. Generally, this type of mountain is formed when tough caprock resists erosion in a limited area while the lands around it are worn down and the softer material is sent toward the coastal plains. Almost all of the monadnocks here in the southern USA were formed this way.

And of the southern monadnocks, one of my favorites is Pilot Mountain. In a bit of trivia, Andy Griffith used the name by switching the words and transforming it to the town, "Mount Pilot" in the old TV series from the early 60s.

Quartzite tough stuff, resisting the call of gravity for millions of years.

The caprock that caused this mountain to be left behind while the Piedmont around it was washed down to the Atlantic is quartzite. It's really tough material that overlies softer sediments. Pilot Mountain is one of a series of similar such formations in the area that form a separate and isolated range called the Sauratown Mountains. But Pilot Mountain stands apart even from the other Sauratown peaks. It rises an impressive 1,400 feet above the surrounding plains and stands as a remarkable and instantly recognizable mountain for many miles in every direction. It's even visible and instantly identified from the high Blue Ridge far to the west.

The last time I visted the mountain, the trail around the summit was closed for upfitting. I'm hoping to return there very soon so that I can check out that trail and snap the views I was denied on that trip. A climb to the very summit would be good, but that part of the mountain is permanently closed to human access because of rare plants and birds that exist there. Pilot Mountain is one of only a few peaks in the eastern USA whose summit cannot be accessed by walking. The walls that surround the top are sheer and present Class III and Class IV climbing.

The summit of Pilot Mountain, taken in the height of summer.