The Field Atlas

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Older stone

East destinations in the USA

The East is older stone and closer towns. Gorges, hardwood, and Atlantic granite still make a field book.

Acadia, Maine — Autumn hardwood ringing a mountain pond from the granite rim

FrontispieceAcadia, Maine

These plates are for travel that leaves the interstate for a cut in the plateau. Panthertown’s granite valley and the Joyce Kilmer poplars sit in the Nantahala, off the parkway. Cranberry Glades is the Monongahela bog on the Allegheny Plateau. Gulf Hagas is the slate gorge on the Pleasant River in the Maine woods. Little River Canyon is the mountaintop river on Lookout Mountain in Alabama.

Plates
23
States
11

East

The plates

Autumn hardwood ringing a mountain pond from the granite rim
Plate XXIV

Acadia

coast

Mount Desert Island, Maine

Granite mountains that remember the ice, now washed by tide.

44.3° N · 68.3° WOpen plate →

Autumn color climbing the Presidential slopes
Plate XXV

White Mountains

alpine

Northern Appalachians, New Hampshire

Old mountains with a young, fierce sky.

44.3° N · 71.3° WOpen plate →

Autumn ridges above a sea of cloud
Plate XXVI

Great Smoky Mountains

forest

Southern Appalachians, Tennessee / North Carolina

A forest so old it makes its own blue weather.

35.6° N · 83.5° WOpen plate →

Hawksbill Creek falling through peak October hardwood
Plate XLIX

Shenandoah

forest

Blue Ridge, Skyline Drive, Virginia

A mountain road through a hundred miles of October.

38.3° N · 78.7° WOpen plate →

The New River oxbow in full autumn color
Plate L

New River Gorge

canyon

Appalachian Plateau, near Fayetteville, West Virginia

An old river in a young park, under a high thin bridge.

38.1° N · 81.1° WOpen plate →

Island horses on the dune grass
Plate LI

Assateague

coast

Atlantic barrier island, Maryland / Virginia

A thin island the Atlantic is still rewriting.

38.1° N · 75.2° WOpen plate →

Looking up the gorge toward the next fall
Plate LXXIV

Watkins Glen

canyon

Finger Lakes, south end of Seneca, New York

A staircase of water hidden in a fold of New York.

42.4° N · 76.9° WOpen plate →

Autumn heath on the Dolly Sods plateau
Plate LXXV

Dolly Sods

hills

Allegheny Plateau, West Virginia

A northern bog set down on a southern mountain.

39.0° N · 79.4° WOpen plate →

A sandstone prow over autumn hardwood
Plate LXXVI

Red River Gorge

canyon

Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky

A hidden canyon of arches under a Kentucky forest.

37.8° N · 83.6° WOpen plate →

Catawba rhododendron in full bloom on a misted Blue Ridge bench
Plate LXXXIV

Pisgah

forest

Blue Ridge, near Brevard, North Carolina

Where the East learned to grow a forest back.

35.3° N · 82.8° WOpen plate →

Seventh Lake hardwood in peak Adirondack autumn
Plate LXXXVIII

Adirondack High Peaks

alpine

Adirondack Park, New York

A wilderness the size of a state, wearing a New York address.

44.2° N · 73.9° WOpen plate →

Spring bloom and Blue Ridge layers from Grayson Highlands
Plate CCLXXVII

Grayson Highlands

hills

Mount Rogers high country, Grayson County, Virginia

A highland bald the ponies still keep.

36.6° N · 81.5° WOpen plate →

Autumn hardwood on the Linville Gorge walls
Plate CCLXXVIII

Linville Gorge

canyon

Blue Ridge escarpment, Burke County, North Carolina

The East’s deep gorge, still wearing fall.

35.9° N · 81.9° WOpen plate →

Moss and flagged spruce on Spruce Knob
Plate CCLXXXIX

Spruce Knob

hills

Monongahela NF, Pendleton County, West Virginia

A spruce heath the East still keeps high.

38.7° N · 79.5° WOpen plate →

Middle Falls, a rainbow, and October color at Letchworth
Plate CCCIX

Letchworth

canyon

Letchworth State Park, Genesee Gorge, New York

Middle Falls, a rainbow, and October hardwood.

42.6° N · 78.0° WOpen plate →

Blackwater Falls in October color
Plate CCCXIV

Blackwater Falls

forest

Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley, West Virginia

Amber water over a Blackwater ledge in October.

39.1° N · 79.5° WOpen plate →

Erie Falls on Kitchen Creek, Ricketts Glen
Plate CCCXV

Ricketts Glen

forest

Ricketts Glen State Park, Kitchen Creek, Pennsylvania

A hemlock stair of named falls.

41.3° N · 76.3° WOpen plate →

Taughannock Falls in October hardwood
Plate CCCXVIII

Taughannock Falls

canyon

Taughannock Falls State Park, Cayuga Lake, New York

A white thread in a limestone bowl of October.

42.5° N · 76.6° WOpen plate →

Schoolhouse Falls on Greenland Creek, Panthertown Valley
Plate CCCXL

Panthertown Valley

forest

Nantahala National Forest, Jackson County, North Carolina

A granite valley the highway never enters.

35.2° N · 83.0° WOpen plate →

Looking up into the poplar canopy, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
Plate CCCXLV

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

forest

Nantahala National Forest, Graham County, North Carolina

Old poplar the East still has in one grove.

35.4° N · 83.9° WOpen plate →

Open bog and spruce at Cranberry Glades, Monongahela National Forest
Plate CCCLII

Cranberry Glades

wetland

Monongahela National Forest, Pocahontas County, West Virginia

A northern bog on southern mountains.

38.2° N · 80.3° WOpen plate →

Slate walls of Gulf Hagas on the West Branch Pleasant River
Plate CCCLVIII

Gulf Hagas

canyon

KI Jo-Mary, Piscataquis County, Maine

A slate gorge in the northern Maine woods.

45.5° N · 69.3° WOpen plate →

Little River Falls at the head of Little River Canyon
Plate CCCLIX

Little River Canyon

canyon

Lookout Mountain, DeKalb County, Alabama

A river that runs on top of a mountain.

34.4° N · 85.6° WOpen plate →

Asked at the trailhead

Questions already asked

Are there wild places left in the eastern United States?
Yes. This atlas keeps eastern gorges, coasts, and uplands as plates beside the famous western parks.

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