Journey to a Mystic Peak: Spruce Knob

I ventured to Spruce Knob, West Virginia’s crowning height, located in the Appalachian Mountain range. As I walked through its forests of spruce, birch, maple, and oak, I immersed myself in a world of fantasy where the colors of autumn blended with the greens of the conifers and the flowers, and some shrubs that refused to succumb to the changing season.

A World of Fantasy

A narrow trail at its summit has a name as suggestive as the landscape surrounding it: “The Whispering Spruce Path.” The wind blows strongly at the summit and murmurs as it passes through the slender spruce needles.

The path divides the peculiar landscape into two. I found a plateau on the left side covered with large ancient stone slabs. I wondered why they would be up there while the rest of the mountain was covered in dense forests. The scientific explanation is that these rocks, 300 million years old, are the mountain’s entrails, which have lost their vegetation layer and have been exposed.

In the Land of Giants

But I like stories, and upon seeing them, they immediately reminded me of Pyornkrachzark or the “Rockbiter” from the book “The NeverEnding Story.” The enormous giant must have stopped at the summit and left his crumbs as a souvenir as he paused to have his stone lunch.

The World of Fairies

On the right side of the trail, as if by magic, I suddenly found myself in the place where tiny fairies live. I saw small mushrooms nestled among fluffy and shiny moss in the shade of some spruces.

I had to lie down and place the camera at ground level to capture them. The scent of moss and damp earth enveloped me as I enjoyed this beautiful hideaway.

And thus, the tale unfolds of giants and fairy sprites on this lofty mountaintop, where magic takes its flight.