Graveyard Fields is the name of a flat mountain valley in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

of western

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. It is located in the

Great Balsam Mountains The Great Balsam Mountains, or Balsam Mountains, are in the mountain region of western North Carolina, United States. The Great Balsams are a subrange of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which in turn are a part of the Appalachian Mountains. The most f ...

. The valley, itself over 5,000 feet in elevation, is surrounded by mountains exceeding 6,000 feet in elevation, such as

Black Balsam Knob Black Balsam Knob, also known as Black Balsam Bald, is in the Pisgah National Forest southwest of Asheville, North Carolina, near milepost 420 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is the second highest mountain in the Great Balsam Mountains. The Great Ba ...

, Tennent Mountain, and Sam Knob. These high peaks form the source of the Yellowstone Prong of the Pigeon River, which flows through Graveyard Fields valley. Yellowstone Prong goes over 3 waterfalls in the valley: Upper Falls, Second Falls, and Yellowstone Falls. Graveyard Fields is a very popular hiking destination, accessible from the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...

. The valley's name may originate from a time when a great windstorm fell hundreds of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...

trees on its slopes. These moss-covered stumps resembled graves. Another theory says that extensive

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

during the early 1900s left stumps behind.

Mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and horn ...

and

lichens A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus, fungi species in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship.Red Spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

and

Catawba Rhododendron ''Rhododendron catawbiense'', with common names Catawba rosebay, Catawba rhododendron, mountain rosebay, purple ivy, purple laurel, purple rhododendron, red laurel, rosebay, rosebay laurel, is a species of '' Rhododendron'' native to the eastern ...

, however much of the valley is still open and only covered in shrubs. ---- File:Graveyard Fields 1.jpg, Graveyard Fields in Autumn File:Black Balsam Knob in autumn.JPG, Second Falls with Black Balsam Knob in the background File:Graveyard yellowstone second falls.jpg, Second Falls ----

Cited references

N.C. Div. of Parks & Recreation

External links

* http://www.hikewnc.info/trailheads/pisgah/pisgah/graveyard.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20080528025515/http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/NaturalHeritage/NaturalTreasures/Mountains/GraveyardFields.html * http://www.virtualblueridge.com/parkway_tour/overlooks/00419a.asp {{authority control Landforms of North Carolina Pisgah National Forest Blue Ridge Parkway Protected areas of Transylvania County, North Carolina Landforms of Transylvania County, North Carolina Valleys of the United States