Blue Ridge Center: The Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship

	Our Land
	Scientific & Natural Stewardship
	Flora & Fauna
	Geology
	Waterways
	Historical & Cultural Stewardship

Scientific and Natural Stewardship

GEOLOGY Fall Trees

The Blue Ridge
Region
BRCES Lands Close Up

THE BLUE RIDGE
The Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Province, a vast set of ancient erosion-resistant highlands. The Appalachians are geologically complex and rugged, showing direct evidence of the violence and power of many past intercontinental collisions and separations. Today, the Appalachian Range stretches from Canada's Newfoundland to Alabama.

The Blue Ridge Mountains begin as a solitary ridgeline near Carlisle, Pa., extending into Maryland as South Mountain. It continues through Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and Loudoun, County, Va. as a thin ridge. It rises higher and becomes a complex jumble of peaks and sags in Shenandoah National Park, and broadens significantly in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee achieving elevations of more than 6,000 feet. The ridge flows southward as a dramatic escarpment, ending near Gainesville, Georgia.

The upland of the Blue Ridge is known for its complex layering and the topsy-turvy tilting of its strata — evidence of the geological stresses placed on the rock.

Tree icon return to top