Potomac Highlands - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 1009

Don't forget to look up from the interesting wildflowers and cranberry bogs in Dolly Sods. This area is a favorite of mi-
grating birds and is a great hawk-watching spot.
4. Dolly Sods Scenic Area
Ranging in elevation from 2,600 to over 4,000 feet, the tundralike terrain of Dolly Sods
has a barren beauty that is more like northern Canada than the mid-Atlantic. After much of
the plateau's hemlock and red spruce forests were cleared in the 1880s, fires and erosion
stripped away the topsoil, right down to the bedrock in some places. Despite the devast-
ation, Dolly Sods abounds with vegetation—upland wildflower meadows, blueberry and
huckleberry thickets, cranberry bogs, and patches of dwarf red spruce. These areas support
numerous foxes and beavers, and in summer a symphony of songbirds.
Dolly Sods is also one of the great hawk-watching spots in the Appalachians, because
winds bouncing up and over the Allegheny Front create a natural airborne highway for mi-
grating raptors and other birds. For the best viewing during the spring and fall migration
seasons, follow Rte. 75 all the way to its terminus at Bear Rocks.
5. Elkins
BacktrackingfromDollySodstoRte.32,continuesouthtoHarman,thenheadwestonRte.
33 to the Bear Heaven Recreation Area, named for its black bear population. From there