Green Eyes Festival

Who else is getting excited for the Mothman Festival this year!?🔴🔴

Cumberlands or Blue Ridge? Which mountains are these?

Our chunk of Appalachia is unique in that it serves as a meeting point for two different features of the mountain range, the Cumberland Plateau and the Blue Ridge range. While both are a part of the Appalachian mountains and might appear similar at a first look, there are some surprising differences!

The Blue Ridge runs parallel to the Cumberland and is on the eastern side, and is characterized by having higher mountains that are often topped with a round point at the summit. These mountains tend to also have more slopes down to large valleys between them and feature spruce forests at their peaks. Good examples are the Nantahala and the Great Smokies (pictures 1 and 2)

The Cumberland for comparison runs on the western side, and being older than the Blue Ridge, its mountains are more eroded, with flat and shorter tops. The Cumberlands tend to have more rugged and large canyons between the mountains, carved by water, and large stretches of mixed forests. Examples would be Lookout Mountain and the Savage Gulf (pictures 3 and 4).

Can you see the difference?