Dolly Sods Wilderness
Location: Canaan Valley, Davis WV
Date: Friday, June 10th 5:00 pm thru Sunday, June 12th, 10 am (2016)
Cost: $200 Limit: 8
Details: The workshop will begin at 5pm with a meet and greet and class work on exposure and composition. Light refreshments will be served. We will shoot daylight till dark with most of our teaching done in the field, weather permitting! Above cost includes all instruction and class book. We will car pool to locations. Participants are responsible for travel to and from Canaan Valley and all meals and lodging.
Getting to these wonderful locations is not physically strenuous but will require sturdy hiking shoes or boots. Water-shoes and/or sport sandals come in handy too. Most locations are yards from vehicle and any short hikes are fairly flat and on good trails. A standard Liability release form will be required at the beginning of the workshop.
Canaan Valley is West Virginia’s big secret. It offers photo opportunities anytime of the year.
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Canaan Valley is located in Tucker County, West Virginia. Within it are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River which spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls; WV’s most photographed waterfall. The Valley, nestled among the higher ranges of the Allegheny Mtns, is about 13 miles long and 3 to 5 miles wide.
- It is defined by Canaan Mountain to the west and Cabin Mountain to the east. The average valley floor elevation is 3,200 feet above sea level, making it the highest sizable valley east of the Mississippi River. Because of its relatively high elevation, Canaan Valley has a cooler, moister climate than surrounding areas at lower altitudes which makes it the perfect recipe for outstanding fall foliage. Canaan Valley shares much of the plant and animal life characteristic of the rest of the state, but it also include species otherwise found only in sub-arctic bogs and conifer forests of Alaska, Maine and Canada. The Valley includes several habitat types, but particularly noteworthy are its extensive wetlands, which are the largest in the entire central and southern Appalachian region; they form the second largest inland wetland area in the US. These 8,400 or so acres of shrub swamp and bog represent approximately 40% of the wetland found in the state of West Virginia. Late August experiences impressive blooms of cotton grass, a sedge, otherwise found mostly in Alaska and Canada.
The Dolly Sods Wilderness is our favorite place for sunrises. Located in the Allegheny Mtns. and it is part of the Monongahela National Forest. Dolly Sods is a rocky, high-altitude plateau with sweeping vistas and lifeforms normally found much farther north in Canada. The distinctive landscape of “the Sods” is characterized by stunted (flagged) trees, wind-carved boulders, heath barrens, grassy meadows created in the last century by logging and fires, and sphagnum bogs.
