West Virginia

Spruce Knob
Seneca Rocks, West Virginia
County = Pendleton
Elevation = 4,863 ft.
Rank = 24th

Pictures From our Trip
These are pictures from our trip on
October 7th, 2000. Click on the
thumbnail to see a larger version
of the picture.

Our Trip Report

After summiting Maryland's Backbone Mountain, we headed southwest in search of West Virginia's highpoint, Spruce Knob. At 4,863 feet, it was to be our second-highest successfully summited peak in terms of altitude thus far. With only a few hours of daylight remaining, we had little time to waste. It is a little over 60 miles from Backbone Mountain to Spruce Knob. As a Midwesterner, one might mentally do the math and assume that at an average interstate speed, one should be able to traverse the span in roughly an hour. But Appalachian roads are far different from Ohio roads, and the trip took much longer than we had anticipated. Along the way, we saw a landmark that we couldn't pass up. A cluster of rocks called Seneca Rocks caught our attention. It struck us as a sight one would expect to see in the Rocky Mountains rather than the Appalachians. So we stopped for some pictures and were further amazed to see that upon closer inspection, there were at least 5 people climbing the nearly vertical cliff that was facing us. Several other hikers and climbers could be seen at various stages of the ascent. An observation telescope was there for those who wished to take a closer look. We tried to take a picture of the climbers through the lens of this telescope and we were pleased with how clearly it came out. After spending about 15 minutes in awe of Seneca Rocks and its climbers, we returned to the car and continued what we thought would be a short drive to Spruce Knob. But, as precedent has dictated, nothing comes that easily for The Adventure Group. So far on our trip, the roads had been where they were supposed to be. There was little variation to our original itinerary to this point. We were slightly behind schedule, but still had enough daylight to get to the summit. We suppose that it wouldn't be entirely untrue to say that we were feeling somewhat confident after having so much success with the first two states we had summitted that day. But the highpoint gods were not without a sense of irony on that sunny October day. As we were approaching the access road to Spruce Knob, we came upon a sign that indicated the road was closed due to construction, and that an alternate route must be used. Unfortunately, no specific instructions were given on what or where the alternate route was. Immediately, we began to panic as we remembered what happened only six months earlier in Tennessee. As the sun began to hide behind the nearby mountains, we knew that we had less than an hour before dusk. We remembered passing a road not far back that seemed to go up the mountain. So we decided to see if that was the alternate route we needed to use. On the way, we stopped at a local filling station to see if we were on the right track. The attendant verified our suspicion but we had already lost valuable time. If we were going to make it with daylight to spare, we were going to have to hurry. What followed in the next 1/2 hour was perhaps the best clutch performance since Kirk Gibson homered off Dennis Eckersley in the '88 Series. Scott's standard-shift four cylinder Nissan Altima was pushed to the peak of its performance ascending the mountain. It is possible that someone may have traveled the same route in less time, but only if they were using a Hum-V or a Chenowth. On a road with drastic ascents and hairpin switchbacks, we cruised at speeds that at times approached 50 MPH. The urgency of the ascent was made more apparent by the occasional glimpses of the mountains east of Spruce Knob, illuminated by the setting sun. The views we saw were some of the most amazing we have seen thus far. At long last, we reached the parking lot, grabbed the camera, hastily put on our gloves, and ran up the trail to the highpoint as the sun quickly began its closing act. We managed to get to the observation tower just in time to witness about five minutes of the Spruce Knob sunset while the light was still adequate. For the remainder of the time, we explored the trails around the highpoint and took in the views from some lookouts at dusk. The wind was beginning to bite and the light was quickly dissipating, so we took one last look around, searching for the geological survey marker. We saw what we thought might be the remnants of the marker but it looked as if it had been pried up. The tower and the area around it was under construction at the time so they might be in the process of replacing it. After we felt we had sufficiently conquered Spruce Knob, we began our long and tedious drive to the Extreme Expeditions campground where we would spend the next two days camping, and more importantly, white-water rafting the Upper and Lower Gauley River. The Adventure Group had recorded its first hat trick, a trilogy of highpoints in one day. We had gone from dawn to dusk non-stop and our trip had only just begun. Nonetheless, another state had been completed. Nine down, forty-one to go!

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