September 13, 2005
Rock Stacks
Snow-covered in winter, the summer highland mountains and valleys around the Dolly Sods Wilderness and the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia is spectacular yet foreign to most East Coast low landers. Vast areas of blueberry and fern groundcover dominate selected slopes punctuated by clumps of Spruce and Hemlock all growing atop mountains of rocks and boulders, a few tops of which remain visible like nests of enormous prehistoric creatures.
"Cairns 3 and 4", each about 6 feet.
Outsized rock cairns best describe Mike Shaffer's towers of rocks that rise up out of the undergrowth like strange natural formations. Fragile and temporary in the totality of their being, not with respect to their materials but because of the simplistic nature of their construction and dependence on perfect balance, they are easily ruined by a gust of wind or a curious crow.
"Cairn 5", about 5 feet.
Posted by Lloyd at September 13, 2005 11:55 AM