Jigsaw puzzle of stone

Geologic puzzle poses challenge for hikers at Rockbridge Co. park

NATURAL BRIDGE -- The legs and lungs strain to climb out of the Devils Marbleyard.

This isn't a place for small children or animals: ankles can easily twist here. Or worse.

Like mountain goats, the reckless leap from boulder to boulder while the more timid creep upward on all fours, balancing on one knife-edged boulder before shifting delicately to another.

From the ridgeline above, the angular chunks of Antietam quartzite spill as if from a bucket of children's building blocks, the result of some ancient event that may have occurred with the speed of a bomb blast or as slowly as a river cutting a canyon...

Article by Sam Dean in the Roanoke Times - read the rest of the article here.

Virginia Master Naturalists Love to Get Outside, they love Geology and Natural History! 

Natural History of The Blue Ridge Parkway

National Parks Travelers shared:

Visit The Blue Ridge Parkway for your next field trip

James River Watergap/ James River Face (Milepost 63.
Imagine the titanic forces needed for Virginia’s biggest river to flow placidly through this breach in the Appalachians. This water gap—a typical Appalachia formation—is sure to impress. Such gaps played a key role in westward expansion, and the one here was a corridor for an early turnpike, railroad, and canal. A major highway and rail line still course above the river. The canal is gone, but the James River Trail leads across a bridge from the visitor center to the opposite bank where a lock is still visible at this lowest point on the Parkway. The Trail of Trees (same starting point), one of the Parkway’s best interpretive trails, covers the geology of the water gap and the diversity of the floodplain forest. The cliffs and crags on the south side of the river comprise the James River Face Wilderness, an 8,900-acre federally designated wild area.