Their basins are steep and rugged, with elevations ranging from only 1,086 feet at the mouth of Slickrock Creek to 5,341 feet on Stratton Bald. Rock outcrops are common, and a network of streams dissect the terrain. Inside their sheltered canopy, the atmosphere is decidedly different from other forests. It is quieter, the birds so high in the treetops that their songs are hard to hear. The understory is markedly different, too, not nearly so lush or overwhelming as in second-growth forests still evolving.
Tall trees form columns and arches that seem to draw thoughts and energy skyward.
A soft carpet of bright green moss and multihued lichens soften our earthbound existence. Much of the surrounding land in the region was logged by timber companies. Babcock Land and Timber Company, which logged the surrounding Slickrock Creek area, owned the Little Santeetlah Creek basin that forms the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Over the years, other timber companies have held the deed, yet, for a variety of reasons, they never logged it. Officially, the memorial forest was saved from destruction in 1936 after a long series of seemingly unrelated events that ranged from bankruptcy and bravery to warfare and the welfare of a small mountain river basin.