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Dolly Sods Wilderness occupies the lower half of the drainage of the north fork of Red Creek. Red Creek begins on the high plateau of Allegheny Mountain, a flat, poorly drained area. As the stream crosses into what is now wilderness, it begins to cut down through the plateau, creating a steep-sided canyon. As it leaves the wilderness, it joins with the south fork of Red Creek and continues on to the Dry Fork River. Because of this, the northern section of the wilderness is high-elevation plateau, wind-swept and boggy. Patches of native red spruce, alder, maple, and mountain ash mingle with plantations of pine, upland heath, and sphagnum bogs. The area is generally open, with wide-spreading vistas. Huckleberries and cranberries are common in the heath and bog areas. As Red Creek and its tributaries, Big Stonecoal and Little Stonecoal Runs, leave the plateau; they become more forested, with a number of hardwood trees including maple, birch, and black cherry. Hemlock is a common conifer along the drains as well. Underneath the trees are thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel. Red Creek itself changes from a pleasant meandering stream to a dynamic, tumbling watercourse, with several small waterfalls and swirling pothole areas. Red Creek is well known to flash flood because the high ridge of Allegheny Mountain, the eastern continental divide, catches storms. When enough rain has fallen to lighten the clouds, they finally sail on east. Interestingly enough, Allegheny Mountain also catches storms coming from the east, most notably those associated with hurricanes, which also dump water into Red Creek.\n\nHistory:\n\nThe Dolly Sods area was first explored by Thomas Lewis during a survey in 1746 to find the limits of Lord Fairfax’s land grant from the British Crown. The area was generally avoided as too impenetrable until the late 1800’s. The exploitation of West Virginia’s coal and timber resources got under way in the 1870’s and by the late 1890’s, the ra Dolly Sods Wilderness occupies the lower half of the drainage of the north fork of Red Creek. Red Creek begins on the high plateau of Allegheny Mountain, a flat, poorly drained area. As the stream crosses into what is now wilderness, it begins to cut down through the plateau, creating a steep-sided canyon. As it leaves the wilderness, it joins with the south fork of Red Creek and continues on to the Dry Fork River. Because of this, the northern section of the wilderness is high-elevation plateau, wind-swept and boggy. Patches of native red spruce, alder, maple, and mountain ash mingle with plantations of pine, upland heath, and sphagnum bogs. The area is generally open, with wide-spreading vistas. Huckleberries and cranberries are common in the heath and bog areas. As Red Creek and its tributaries, Big Stonecoal and Little Stonecoal Runs, leave the plateau; they become more forested, with a number of hardwood trees including maple, birch, and black cherry. Hemlock is a common conifer along the drains as well. Underneath the trees are thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel. Red Creek itself changes from a pleasant meandering stream to a dynamic, tumbling watercourse, with several small waterfalls and swirling pothole areas. Red Creek is well known to flash flood because the high ridge of Allegheny Mountain, the eastern continental divide, catches storms. When enough rain has fallen to lighten the clouds, they finally sail on east. Interestingly enough, Allegheny Mountain also catches storms coming from the east, most notably those associated with hurricanes, which also dump water into Red Creek.\n\nHistory:\n\nThe Dolly Sods area was first explored by Thomas Lewis during a survey in 1746 to find the limits of Lord Fairfax’s land grant from the British Crown. The area was generally avoided as too impenetrable until the late 1800’s. The exploitation of West Virginia’s coal and timber resources got under way in the 1870’s and by the late 1890’s, the ra View of New River Gorge National River from Beauty Mountain in Fayette County, WV. Douglas Falls located on the North Fork of the Blackwater River in Douglas, Tucker County, WV. Sunrise from the Grandview overlook area of the New River Gorge National River in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Oakhurst Development in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia, August 2006 Saddleback Mountain, Mineral County, WV.\nThis view of the saddleback in New Creek Mountain can be seen from an overlook located at the junctions of SR 42 and US Rt 50 in Mineral County, WV. Purchased by the federal government in 1969, Seneca Rocks is one of the best-known landmarks in West Virginia. These rocks have long been noted as a scenic attraction and are popular with rock climbers.\n\nThe rocks are a magnificent formation rising nearly 900 feet above the North Fork River. Eastern West Virginia contains many such formations of the white/gray Tuscarora quartzite. Seneca Rocks and nearby Champe Rocks are among the most imposing examples. The quartzite is approximately 250 feet thick and is located primarily on exposed ridges as caprock or exposed crags. The rock is composed of fine grains of sand that were laid down approximately 440 million years ago, in an extensive sheet at the edge of ancient ocean. Years of geologic activity followed, as the ocean was slowly destroyed and the underlying rock uplifted and folded. Millions of years of erosion stripped away the overlaying rock and left remnants of the arching folds in formations such as Seneca Rocks.\n\nMan has apparently been a visitor to the area around Seneca Rocks for a long time. Some evidence suggests that the Native Americans of the Archaic Period may have camped at the mouth of nearby Seneca Creek. The famous Seneca Trail followed the Potomac River, allowing the Algonquin, Tuscarora, and Seneca tribes to trade and make war.\n\nThe first European settlers in the region appeared about 1746. At that time, West Virginia (or western Virginia as it was then) was the edge of the great wilderness. Slowly the area was settled, disturbed by the events of the American Revolution and the Civil War, which pitted brother against brother in these border counties.\n\nIt is unknown who the first person was to climb Seneca Rocks. Undoubtedly Native Americans scaled the rocks prior to European settlers reaching the area, but there is no record of their ascents. The historic ascent of Paul Brandt, Don Hubbard, and Sam Moore in 1939 found an inscription of "D.B. Sept. 16, 1908." This has been attributed to a surveyo Purchased by the federal government in 1969, Seneca Rocks is one of the best-known landmarks in West Virginia. These rocks have long been noted as a scenic attraction and are popular with rock climbers.\n\nThe rocks are a magnificent formation rising nearly 900 feet above the North Fork River. Eastern West Virginia contains many such formations of the white/gray Tuscarora quartzite. Seneca Rocks and nearby Champe Rocks are among the most imposing examples. The quartzite is approximately 250 feet thick and is located primarily on exposed ridges as caprock or exposed crags. The rock is composed of fine grains of sand that were laid down approximately 440 million years ago, in an extensive sheet at the edge of ancient ocean. Years of geologic activity followed, as the ocean was slowly destroyed and the underlying rock uplifted and folded. Millions of years of erosion stripped away the overlaying rock and left remnants of the arching folds in formations such as Seneca Rocks.\n\nMan has apparently been a visitor to the area around Seneca Rocks for a long time. Some evidence suggests that the Native Americans of the Archaic Period may have camped at the mouth of nearby Seneca Creek. The famous Seneca Trail followed the Potomac River, allowing the Algonquin, Tuscarora, and Seneca tribes to trade and make war.\n\nThe first European settlers in the region appeared about 1746. At that time, West Virginia (or western Virginia as it was then) was the edge of the great wilderness. Slowly the area was settled, disturbed by the events of the American Revolution and the Civil War, which pitted brother against brother in these border counties.\n\nIt is unknown who the first person was to climb Seneca Rocks. Undoubtedly Native Americans scaled the rocks prior to European settlers reaching the area, but there is no record of their ascents. The historic ascent of Paul Brandt, Don Hubbard, and Sam Moore in 1939 found an inscription of "D.B. Sept. 16, 1908." This has been attributed to a surveyo Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope\n \n\nConstruction has been completed on the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's site in Green Bank, Pocahontas County, West Virginia (79° 50' 23.40" W, 38° 25' 59.23" N : NAD83). \n\nThe GBT is described as a 100-meter telescope, but the actual dimensions of the surface are 100 by 110 meters. The overall structure of the GBT is a wheel-and-track design that allows the telescope to view the entire sky above 5 degrees elevation. The track, 64 m (210 ft) in diameter, is level to within a few thousandths of an inch in order to provide precise pointing of the structure while bearing 7300 metric tons (16,000,000 pounds) of moving weight. \n\nThe GBT is of an unusual design. Unlike conventional telescopes, which have a series of supports in the middle of the surface, the GBT's aperture is unblocked so that incoming radiation meets the surface directly. This increases the useful area of the telescope and eliminates reflection and diffraction that ordinarily complicate a telescope's pattern of response. To accommodate this, an off-axis feed arm cradles the dish, projecting upward at one edge, and the telescope surface is asymmetrical. It is actually a 100-by-110 meter section of a conventional, rotationally symmetric 208-meter figure, beginning four meters outward from the vertex of the hypothetical parent structure. \n\nThe GBT's lack of circular symmetry greatly increases the complexity of its design and construction. The GBT is also unusual in that the 2,004 panels that make up its surface are mounted at their corners on actuators, little motor-driven pistons, which make it easier to adjust the surface shape. Such adjustment is crucial to the high-frequency performance of the GBT in which an accurate surface figure must be maintained. \n\nThe GBT is equipped with a novel laser-ranging system. Beams of light are reflected within the structure and between the telescope and a series of ground