Looking Glass Rock
By Car and Afool
I ,«*on lakes a look al Looking' Glass
from the Rlue Ridge Parkway and
vice-versa.
tty LEOi \ M. SILER
The leol-corpefed l«oil up Looking Glow Rook
dote* bock lo Indion doyv
Ar the summit ore bcoutiful groves — beautiful,
but with trunks sometimes unimoginobly oskc»
from wind domoge or old oge.
Best to stoy behind thof iron pipe borricr ot the
Rock's northern crest; it would be
о
long tumble
to the bottom.
to
Travelers from far and near lurn
into Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks
along Pisgah Ridge, west of Asheville,
each summer's day lo gaze at a giant
glob of rounded granite out there to the
Southeast — gaze, and wonder.
They're gazing at Transylvania
County’s entry in the great stone
mountain competition: Looking Glass
Rock, one of the showpieces of Pisgah
National Forest and a worthy rival of
Wilkes County’s Stone Mountain (The
State, Nov. I, 1969). of Georgia’s
Stone Mountain, and of sundry other
famed monoliths.
The first wondering done by most
new arrivals at one of the lookouts is
how in the world this mammoth wart
on a vast green landscape ever got that
way. Then they notice a Forest Service
signboard which tells them. Time was.
the signboard relates, when the granite
rested under thousands of feet of softer
stuff; millions of years of weather and
erosion removed the overlay, and now.
over much of the surface of the huge
protuberance, only the granite remains.
Around the Base
Less readily available is information
for those sightseers who, perchance,
wonder if the Rock can be reached for
closer inspection, and what sort of find¬
ings closer inspection would produce.
A pursuit of first-hand information
along these lines can become quite an
expedition, depending on the persis¬
tence and determination of the pur¬
suer.
It’s perfectly possible and not par¬
ticularly difficult to drive around the
big pebble’s southern, western and
northern flanks on an unpaved For¬
est Service road and incur the likeli¬
hood of neck cricks from looking more
or less straight upward at the vast
sheets of granite with which the flanks
arc armored.
To go about this extended low-level
examination of Looking Glass Rock.
travelers are advised to stop at the
District Ranger's headquarters beside
the musical Davidson River on U.S.
276, a short distance west of State
Route 280. and ask for specific in¬
structions, plus a map.
Those doing the drive-around will
discover that the Rock sticks up like an
extremely sore thumb right out of the
center, more or less, of a huge bowl of
mountain country extending in all
southerly directions from Pisgah Ridge.
A Closer Look
But do you. perhaps, want to plant
your feet on top of the Rock rather
than just drive around it? After looking
at the Rock from the Parkway, would
you like to see the Parkway from the
Rock? If so, here’s how.
From the vicinity of Asheville, you
go west on the Blue Ridge Parkway to
Wagon Road Gap. which is not far
beyond Pisgah Lodge. At the Gap you
turn left on U.S. 276 down the moun¬
tainside, past (he Pink Beds and the
Cradle of Forestry, following Looking
Glass Creek for several miles.
If you approach the Gap from the
west instead of from Asheville, you
turn right on U.S. 276. of course.
At the confluence of Looking Glass
Creek and the Davidson River, you
turn right on the Davidson River Road.
Then you need to keep an eye peeled
for a small "Looking Glass Rock Trail"
sign on the right as you near the David¬
son River Trout Hatchery.
The Forest Service has provided
parking space for only about three cars
at the trail entrance, but more can be
found nearby.
The Trail Upward
Fortunately or unfortunately, the
first half of the climb is steeper than the
second half. It’s approximately three
and a half miles to the summit. How
difficult the trail will prove depends on
the age and the hiking experience of the
THE STATE. June 1, 1970
