I followed suit. The rain let up. As we neared the summit, a thick fog rolled in and we could several trees had fallen. At the base of the silver-colored observation tower are several bronze tablets describing the region's geological and human history. At the top of the tower is a bronze relief map of the region.
Naturalists report that trees here are indeed more stunted.
The summit is punctuated by frost heave rock formations where a rock is thrust upward at the center of concentric circles. The USGS summit marker is on top of one of these. From here we took the road down through Salisbury, which is a picturesque mountain community with American flags flying on every pole. Two hours and 50 miles later down 219 we were on top of Backbone Mountain in Maryland.