|
Riffles
and Cascades:
Waterfalls
in Virginia
The
allure of falling water is timeless. Thomas
Jefferson is said to have stood at the foot of Dark
Hollow Falls, a set of four cascades that drop 71 feet, which is
now a popular hike for campers at Big Meadows on the
Skyline Drive. Move forward a few centuries and Andy Thompson, a
staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
reminisces about college days spent sliding down the
slick rocks of Station’s Creek Falls and
escaping chemistry books on hot days at Panther
Falls, both near Lexington ("Virginia
Offers Many Places to Get Your Feet Wet," July
20, 2008).
These
are but a few of the myriad waterfalls scattered
throughout the state, including Crabtree
Falls in Nelson County, thought by some to be
the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi. It
consists of five major cascades, the tallest of
which is close to 400 feet. Crabtree is definitely
the highest waterfall in Virginia. While Virginians might want to claim
Great Falls of the Potomac, it is technically located in
Maryland since the commonwealth’s state line follows the
shoreline on the
Virginia
side of the river. Great Falls consists of a series six-foot falls, making it the
steepest fall line rapids of any river in the United States.
Waterfalls
are located in several major areas in the Old
Dominion including the
Blue Ridge
and along the fall line, according to Charles
Grymes' Virginia Places Web site. Grymes is a
geography professor at George Mason
University. A fall line is an area where an upland and coastal
region meet and in Virginia this occurs about 60 or 70 miles from the mountains.
For waterfalls to form, three elements are needed
– water, a drop in elevation and rock that
doesn’t erode easily. For example, there are a few
dramatic bluffs in the Tidewater area east of I-95,
where waterfalls might exist, but the bedrock in
that area is too soft for them to occur.
However,
at the fall line, Virginia rivers drop 50 to 80 feet in elevation from the
Piedmont to sea level. The rock in the Piedmont
is hard and resistant to erosion. The tallest
waterfalls, however, are in the Blue Ridge because the difference in elevation is highest
there. There is a 2,000-foot difference between the
top of the mountains and their base. On the other
hand, rivers such as the New, Big Sandy, Holston, Clinch and Powell, that flow to the
Mississippi, are not near the fall line. They also have
waterfalls, such as the New River's
McCoy Falls near Blacksburg.
Back
to Andy Thompson and his list of favorite
waterfalls. In
the mountains, he recommends Sugar
Hollow Falls on the Moorman’s River, St. Mary’s Falls in the
10,000-acre St. Mary’s Wilderness Area, the
69-foot Cascade Falls
in Giles County and Roaring
Run Falls, a 30-foot cascade in
Alleghany County.
In
Shenandoah National Park, there is Overall
Run Falls, the highest sheer drop in the park.
The lower falls drop is 93 feet, the upper is 29
feet. Then there is White
Oak Canyon in Madison County
with six waterfalls ranging in height from 35 to 86
feet and Cedar
Run's three falls.
Thompson
even scoped out a waterfalls in the relative flat
lands of the Richmond
area, specifically The Falls of the Nottoway
River near Crewe, about 40 miles from
Petersburg.
Waterfalls
in Virginia are so plentiful and scenic that they even merit a
book ("Waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia," Kevin Adams, 2002). Other resources for
exploring the commonweath’s cascading waters
include Virginia
Waterfalls and Best
Waterfalls in Virginia on Trails.com.
Still,
there may be a reason that waterfalls in Native
American myth often have a dark reputation.
In legends, they are often the place where
star-crossed lovers jump to their deaths. Even Adams, in his above-mentioned book, cautions visitors to
Crabtree Falls, Virginia’s centerpiece cascade, to take care.
At least 20 people have fallen to their
deaths trying to walk out to a ledge for a better
view.
So,
while we can’t boast a Class 10 falls like Niagara
or even a Class 6 like Yosemite, and nobody is apt to ride a barrel over a
Virginia waterfall, our fine cascades still make for some
grand scenery.
NEXT: Cathedrals,
Temples and Other Spiritual Shrines in the Old Dominion
--
August 4, 2008
|
|