Lost Cove Wilderness Study Area
updated 10/25/07
Lost Cove is part of the Linville Cluster of Wild Lands.
The Forest Service has published a very useful map called
"The Wilson Creek Area Trail Map"
which covers the Lost Cove Area.
Red lines show Wilderness Study Area Boundary
Green is "SPNM", irrelevant here, but still National Forest
land.
Brown is private land, tan is National Forest land.
Major trails are shown as dashed lines.
Location: Avery County, just SW of the Upper Wilson Creek wild area. Bordered on W by the Blue Ridge Parkway. Separated on the S from Harper Creek WSA by FS Road 464.Access: From Parkway, go SE on County 1511 to Roseborough, past the junction with FS Road 192 to a parking area at Gragg Prong, which gives access to the trail system.
USGS Topographic Quadrangles: Grandfather Mountain. USFS Wilson Creek Area Trail Map is best source of information on trails and roads.
Features/Description/Potential:
Lost Cove is a clearly defined basin encircled by ridges falling northeasterly from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The headwaters of Lost Cove Creek, it is a mostly steep and rugged tract with excellent scenic qualities. It includes the thousand-foot Big Lost Cove Cliffs that can be clearly seen from the Parkway. Hunt Fish Falls and Gragg Prong Falls are highlights worth seeing. There are small pockets of virgin timber in inaccessible portions of the basin, most of which was logged around the turn of the century. Elevations vary from 1700 to 3900 feet. The area is a black bear sanctuary. Geologically, Lost Cove is within the Grandfather Mountain Window, an erosional feature exposing old rocks underlying older ones of the Blue Ridge Thrust Sheet. The granite gneiss in this area is over 800 million years old, and the sand and siltstone are over 600 million years old.
The main trails are FS 262 (part of which is on the Mtns-to-Sea Trail) along Gragg Prong and Lost Cove Creek, and FS 261 along the crest of Timber Ridge, which lies between these two creeks. This area, now protected as Wilderness by its designation as a Wilderness Study Area (WSA), was, along with Harper Creek WSA, recommended for Wilderness designation by the Forest Service in its March 1987 Land and Resource Management Plan, and there was a move in January 2002 to seek support again. There was an earlier attempt in the 102nd Congress by Congressman Ballenger, (in whose District these areas lay), but Congressman Charles Taylor's insistence on combining this effort (plus Wilderness designation for the Craggy Mt. WSA) with the release of the Snowbird and Overflow Wilderness Study Areas in his District to general multiple use doomed the attempt. Opposition to releasing Overflow WSA was particularly strong in Highlands, where Taylor was told to his face by the crowd, "We do not trust you." The current congressman in 2007 is Patrick McHenry (R)..
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