Sleepy Creek Mountain is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

in the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three se ...

on the border between

Morgan Morgan may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment'', also called ''Morgan!'', a 1966 comedy film * ''Morgan'' (2012 film), an American drama * ''Morgan'' (2016 film), an American science fiction thriller * ...

and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

counties in the Eastern Panhandle of

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. The long-distance

Tuscarora Trail The Tuscarora Trail is a hiking trail in the eastern United States, following the Appalachian Mountains through portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Its route is roughly parallel to, and to the west of, the Appalachia ...

traverses the southern ridge and northern bench of the mountain. Together with

Third Hill Mountain Third Hill Mountain is both the highest and most topographically prominent mountain in Berkeley County within the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Third Hill Mountain reaches its highest elevation of above sea-level southeast of the "Locks ...

to the east, the two mountains form a

blind valley A steephead valley, steephead or blind valley is a deep, narrow, flat bottomed valley with an abrupt ending. Such closed valleys may arise in limestone or karst landscapes, where a layer of permeable rock lies above an impermeable substrate such ...

that contains Sleepy Creek Lake and the

Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area is located in Morgan and Berkeley Counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. It encompasses , mostly covered with mixed oak and pine forest, although about are covered with mixed hardwoods. The Sleep ...

. Sleepy Creek and Third Hill Mountains are distinctive for their height in the relatively level terrain of the far Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Geography

The southern end of Sleepy Creek Mountain, Shockeys Knob (), lies in northern Frederick County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and is shared by Berkeley and Morgan counties in West Virginia. The mountain continues along southwest–northeast orientation between the two counties and peaks again at High Rock (). Sleepy Creek Mountain is conjoined with Third Hill Mountain at "Locks-of-the-Mountain". From "Locks-of-the-Mountain", the Meadow Branch of

Sleepy Creek Sleepy Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Potomac River in the United States, belonging to the Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin, ...

is formed flowing northward between the two mountain ridges. North of this point, Sleepy Creek Mountain reaches its highest summit at . East of Johnsons Mill, Whites Gap () is formed in mountain. With Sleepy Creek on its western flank, and Meadow Branch to its eastern flank, Sleepy Creek Mountain is then located entirely in Morgan County. Sleepy Creek Mountain's northern end lies at the confluence of Sleepy Creek and its Meadow Branch. Just south of its northern terminus, on the eastern flank is the Devils Nose Rock formation (not to be confused with the nearby Devil's Nose Mountain), which juts out into the Meadow Branch gorge forcing a sharp bend in the creek.

Flora and fauna

Sleepy Creek Mountain is entirely forested with its woodlands consisting primarily of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s, hickories, and

Virginia pine ''Pinus virginiana'', the Virginia pine, scrub pine, Jersey pine, possum pine, is a medium-sized tree, often found on poorer soils from Long Island in southern New York (state), New York south through the Appalachian Mountains to western Tennesse ...

Deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of Turkey (bird), turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey (''M. g. dom ...

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

, and

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

are all prevalent species on the mountain ridge.

References

{{Mountains of West Virginia Ridges of West Virginia