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The world has its seven wonders. So why not West Virginia? After all the State is called �Wild, Wonderful West Virginia,� and rightly so. West Virginia, The Mountain State, abounds in scenic wonders. Nestled among more urban and populated eastern states, West Virginia is an island of mountains, forests, rivers, and plateaus. Indeed, choosing just seven natural wonders to highlight proved daunting. But subjective as it is, from north to south here is my list:  1. Dolly Sods 2. Canaan Valley 3. Seneca Rocks 4. The Cranberry Glades  5. The Falls of Hills Creek 6. The New River Gorge  7. Sandstone Falls Dolly Sods Credentials of the Seven To make the list, the seven wonders had to fit certain criteria. For instance, they all had to be well-known landmarks, if not nationally, certainly state-wide. They had to be �on the map,� that is, located and identified on a West Virginia State Highway Map. Furthermore, I felt the north, central and southern regions of West Virginia all ha...

Fall foliage colors are coming on slowly this year, and in some places without their usual brilliance. But at Dolly Sods colors abound as Phyllis and I discovered last Wednesday (10-5-2016) on a foggy, cloudy day in the high country.  Dolly Sods Ferns are Great this Year Although the trees leaves are struggling for color, ferns are having a banner year. Without killing frosts, the ferns have been able to grow old gracefully gradually adopting a breathtaking spectrum of earth tones. Bright yellow, gold, light green, beige, and brown all adorn patches of ferns like a painter�s palette.  Dolly Sods In Dolly Sods across the road from the South Overlook on Forest Road 75, we found a stand of ferns literally glowing despite the slate gray sky. The golden ferns contrasted beautifully with the deep green spruce trees. The golden ferns also contrasted nicely with the red leaves of the blueberry plants.  Dolly Sods Goldenrod Still Going Strong We also found goldenrod lighting up so...

To me, the rocks that rim Dolly Sods have been sculpted into exquisite forms that resemble everything from humans and animals to abstract art. In a pamphlet about Dolly Sods published by the West Virginia University Extension Service, Norma Jean Venable wrote: �The boulders at Bear Rocks project from the stony earth as if placed by the hands of some ancient race of neolithic people.� This apparent element of intention or art in the rocks of Dolly Sods is intriguing and has led me to explain their origin in geologic terms.  Among the interesting shapes at Bear Rocks are rounded, often water-filled, depressions of varying diameters and depths carved into the stone. These depressions are called weathering pits or gnammas (nam uhs), the latter a term borrowed from the Aborigines of Australia, who depend on the water trapped in natural rock bowls for survival. A Large Gnamma at Dolly Sods Gnammas are formed by a geologic process called differential weathering. For example, should just a...