A view from Cheat Mountain by photographer Troy Lilly
Cheat Mountain is not just one big hill in West Virginia, but a high ridge that snakes more than 50 miles from the southernmost tip at Thorny Flats in Pocahontas County, where Snowshoe Mountain Resort takes advantage of the range’s highest elevations, to a northern point near Parsons, in Tucker County. Alpine and Nordic skiers know Cheat Mountain as Snowshoe, Elk River, Timberline, Canaan Valley, and White Grass ski areas.
The region was once the home of the largest red spruce forest south of Maine. The area pictured here was still an unbroken wilderness until just before the Civil War. It is still hardly populated, except for a few small towns and hamlets lining ancient Indian paths that are now two-lane roads.
West Virginia photographer Troy Lilly took this picture. Many thousands of people apparently know his work. I’ve just recently discovered him via friends on Facebook. I look forward to sharing more of his photos, as they come close to creating the feeling you get when you actually experience an Appalachian autumn evening.
