BLACK MOUNTAINS ROADLESS AREA     Light green, and white, areas are National Forest land.  Tan is land in other ownerships, among them the Cane Creek Hunt Club west of Mt. Mitchell and the Asheville Watershed south of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The green overlay indicates black bear habitat,  representing 15,586 acres with zero open road per square mile of land, or very roughly, the Roadless Area.      The Forest Service-named "Bearwallow" Roadless Area is that part of the Black Mountains Roadless Area south of Mt. Mitchell, divided from the north part ("Balsam Cone") only by the powerline cut running up to Mt. Mitchell from the east.     Major trails are shown with dashed lines.  The 1263 acre Middle Creek Natural Area is virgin forest, set aside as a Research Natural Area in 1933.  Another 2537 acres on either side of Middle Creek is managed as a special interest area and registered with the NC Natural Heritage Program.  The Blacks are not only an outstanding hotspot of biodiversity, but is also a well-known and popular hiking area.

Location: Yancey County.  E Flank of the Black Mountain Range, just E of  Mt. Mitchell State Park between the ridge of the Blacks and South Toe
Rivers. Runs from the Blue Ridge Parkway on the S to Celo Knob on the N.

Access:  From Mt. Mitchell State Park off of Blue Ridge Parkway, from NC 80 on the E side at the Carolina Hemlock Recreation Area, and on the SE from the Parkway at Deep Gap and at the Black Mtn. Campground.

USGS Topographic Quadrangles: Mt. Mitchell (N.W.), Celo (N.E.), Montreat (S.W.), Old Fort (S.E.), Burnsville (N. tip)(don't have)  See also Forest Service South Toe River Trail Map.

See also the book:  "A History of Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains" by S.K. Schwarzkopf (1985), published by NC Div. of  Archives and History.

Features/Description/Potential: The impressive eastern flank of the Black Moutain Range, highest in the eastern US. Rugged terrain, black bear habitat, scenic vistas from the ridge. Much "old growth"(including the 1263 acre Middle Creek Research Natural Area, one of the most extensive remaining virgin forests in the Eastern US.). Northern red oaks, tulip poplars and sugar maples up to 4 ft dia. and 500 yrs old, along with large old hemlocks are to be seen in the Middle Creek RNA, rivaling the Joyce Kilmer Forest.  The area contains one of the best quality composites of high elevation forests in the S. Applachaians consisting of old-growth boreal forest, northern hardwood and cove forests, dry ridge communities and heath balds.  Mountain paper birch, disjunct from its normal range in Canada and N. Appalachians, is found here, along with other rare plant species. Animals rare or uncommon in NC are raven, New England cottontail, rock vole, saw whet owl, scorpion fly, and the Mt. Mitchell spider.  The Black Mts. were part of a larger area proposed for national park status in the early '70's.  Was part of the proposed Balsam Cone Wilderness during RARE II. Was proposed by the Sierra Club, but not by the Forest Service, for Wilderness. Except for Middle Creek, there is a past history of logging.   Clearcuts have been made in the past on the western slope, but only at the base of the eastern slope.  The S half of the Blacks is a bear sanctuary, extending S across the Parkway in the region including Curtis, Newberry, and Mackey Creeks.
     The Elisha Mitchell Chapter of Audubon has adopted Mt. Mitchell State Park through the state program and feel that the entire Black Mtn. range should be protected as an outstanding and unique natural resource. There is probably good local support for more protection (citizens organized several years ago (prior to 2000) to get congressional funding for the FS to purchase Celo Knob, the northernmost peak in the range).
     The northeast corner has sustained some significant roading and clearcuts according to Elaine & Edward Gouge, Sierra Members who have recently hiked in this area. (March 1991) A FS high-grade system road has been graveled all the way up to Locust Ridge where you can look off and see the clearcuts. (The two roads shown on the Forest Service's "blue line" (1994?) map going up from the South Toe River (SE portion - short roads) are low grade and seeded to grass.)

Significant Points:
- Adjacent to Mt. Mitchell State Park, now an International Biosphere Reserve
- Part of the highest, most impressive Mt. Range east of Mississippi River, six  peaks over 6,000 feet
- Black bear sancturary
- extensive trail network, popular with hikers and backpackers
- South Toe River basin (South Toe River has been designated a High Quality  Water by NC Environmental Management Commission)
- Very rugged eastern slope of the Black Mtn. ridge
- Parkway viewshed

There is the potential to link this area with Jarrett Creek to the S, and to the W with the privately-protected (via easement granted to American Farmland Trust) Cane River Hunt Club (a Hanes family enterprise) area, which in turn abuts the E boundary of the Big Butt wild area.  To the S of the Parkway at the S border of the Hunt Club property is the Asheville watershed, also protected by a conservation easement, which is bordered on the W by the Parkway and the Craggy Mt. WSA, and on the E by Jarrett Creek wild area, separated only by about 1.5 miles of FS property.  Such a linkup would create a "mega-reserve" or protected area of roughly 60,000 acres, the biggest block of wild land in the S. Applachians outside the GSMNP.  This area, especially with Mt. Mitchell and the spectacular virgin forests of Middle Creek, is not only Wilderness, but National Park caliber.

Pictures
Back to Outings Page
Back to Roadless Areas Page
Back to Conservation Page