Road Prong

Tuesday was a beautiful day and with most classes canceled because most people were at the AAG meeting in San Francisco, I went to the park to do a little site scouting at Road Prong. I was surprised to see Clingsman Dome Road closed, so I parked at Newfound Gap and walk the ~ 2 miles of the Appalachian Trail to Road Prong. I quickly noticed there were a large number of large Red Spruce trees down over the trail from the high winds we had the past 3 days.

The stream itself had several examples of large woody debris both creating waterfalls and directing the water movement.

There was also an old debris dam made of large logs that created a pool upstream of it.

Suddenly, I came on a large section of stream completely covered with large Red Spruce. I tried climbing over it but gove up after 300 ft as it was getting more difficult.

I walked back on the Clingsman Dome Road and saw why it was closed. There were many trees down blocking the road, however, I did get some good pictures of the Mt Le Conte Massif and the valley of the Beach Flats Prong in North Carolina.