Bear Rocks Preserve

Why You Should Visit
Bear Rocks is on Dolly Sods, a high plateau atop the Allegheny Front. The area around Bear Rocks supports subalpine heathlands dominated by shrubs such as blueberries, huckleberries, mountain laurel, azalea, and rhododendron. Groves of stunted red spruce, flagged by ice and wind, outcrops of the Pottsville conglomerate, grassy meadows, and cranberry bogs also occur. From Bear Rocks, striking views to the east reveal mountain after mountain, extending into Virginia. On the clearest days can be seen Hawksbill Mountain and Stony Man, the highest peaks in Shenandoah National Park.

Dolly Sods is a very popular area for hiking and wildlife study. Informal trails weave across the Bear Rocks Preserve. An extensive trail system occurs on national forest lands. Walk out on the rocks, study the plants along the trail, and listen to the sounds made by the almost constant wind. Many of the plants and animals here are typically found in the North, such as snowshoe hare, saw-whet owls, boreal red-backed voles, and fisher. Some plants and animals are restricted to the Southern Appalachians The West Virginia flying squirrel and Cheat Mountain salamander, both on the federal threatened and endangered species list, are known from Dolly Sods.

Location
Central Appalachian Forest Ecoregion
Grant and Tucker counties

Size
477 acres

Conditions
This is fairly remote and undeveloped hiking. Dolly Sods includes remote and rugged areas. Visitors should carry the appropriate topographic maps. The weather can change quickly; visitors should dress appropriately and wear sturdy hiking boots. In the winter, snow and ice can make visiting treacherous, so use caution. The only safe drinking water source on the mountain is from the pump at the Forest Service's Red Creek Campground.

CAUTION!!! UNEXPLODED ORDINANCES MAY BE ENCOUNTERED
Dolly Sods - including the Bear Rocks Preserve - was an artillery training area during World War II. Please, stay on existing trails and keep children close by.
DO NOT PICK UP OR REMOVE SHELLS OR SHELL FRAGMENTS!!

How to Prepare for Your Visit
The Nature Conservancy's Bear Rocks Preserve is open to the public for hiking and nature study. Visitors should carry the appropriate USGS topographic map (Blackbird Knob, Blackwater Falls, Hopeville, and Onego cover the entire Dolly Sods area). Topographic maps and additional information about adjoining federal land can be obtained from:
Monongahela National Forest
Potomac Ranger District
HC 59, Box 240
Petersburg, WV 26847
Phone: (304) 257-4488

Directions
From Petersburg:

Take WV 55 west to Jordan Run Road (Rt. 28/7).
Take Jordan Run Road 1 mile then turn left onto Forest Service Road 19 and follow it for six miles to the top of the Allegheny Front. (Caution: FS Road 19 is not plowed in the winter. Winter travel is not advised.)
At the top of the mountain, turn right onto Forest Service Road 75. Dolly Sods Wilderness will be on the left of the road, Dolly Sods Scenic Area on the right. Continue on FS Road 75 for about eight miles to the Bear Rocks Parking Lot (where the road turns sharply to descend the mountain). The preserve is a short walk north of the parking lot.

What to See: Plants
Three-toothed cinquefoil, dwarf dogwood, and dwarf cranberry are some of the easily found boreal plants on the Preserve. Mountain laurel, rose azalea, minnie bush, lowbush blueberry, black huckleberry, and rosebay rhododendron are some of the many heath species that flourish here.

What to See: Animals
From late August through October, hawks, eagles, and other birds migrate south along the Alleghenies. Winds created by air passage over the mountains, and warm air or “thermals” rising from the valleys, enable large birds to soar more easily. Bear Rocks is an excellent place to watch for their passage, with broad-winged hawks often occurring in flocks, called kettles, which sometimes contain over a hundred hawks. The best weather is usually a sunny day with a breeze from the north or northeast. Sharp eyes and good binoculars help spot distant hawks.

Few natural history experiences are as rewarding as seeing colorful warblers, vireos, thrushes, and other songbirds close-up and few opportunities to do so are more rewarding than at the bird banding station in the Dolly Sods Scenic Area. Each fall morning, from mid-August through mid-October, volunteers with the Allegheny Front Bird Migration Observatory catch migrating songbirds in fine “mist” nets made of nylon, make careful measurements, place uniquely numbered bands on the bird’s legs, and release them unharmed. Depending on the weather, few birds are caught some mornings, hundreds on other mornings. Birds banded at Dolly Sods have shown up elsewhere in the U.S., in Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, expanding our knowledge of where our migratory birds nest and winter. The Observatory, open to the public, is reached by a short walk from the parking lot opposite Red Creek Campground.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
In the 1970s The Nature Conservancy acquired 15,000 acres of coal rights and transferred them to the U.S. Forest Service, allowing for the creation of the 10,000 acre Dolly Sods Wilderness Area. In the early 1990s, the Conservancy acquired over 6000 acres (known as "Dolly Sods North") for the Forest Service. The Preserve was created in 2000 with the donation of 477 acres by Dominion, an energy company based in Virginia. The Conservancy also has 147 acres in conservation easements.