Dolly Sods Wilderness / Bear Rocks Preserve

10/19/2022

Winter is making its usual early first appearance! The first real snow has come to the highlands! Check out these shots from the webcams over at Timberline Mountain & Canaan Valley Resort
This also means that it’s snowing up on Dolly Sods Wilderness / Bear Rocks Preserve.

10/18/2022

Protect the places you love for generations to come. Please hike / camp responsibly & Leave No Trace 🏕 🔥 🍁🍂🌲🌲🌲🏔🗻🏔

10/15/2022

The first year of data from the Dolly Sods Wilderness Stewards program is now in and the program has been a success. See the article below for detailed information, and for opportunities to volunteer!

Over the years, and especially the last decade the popularity of Dolly Sods Wildnerness has grown immensely. The little secret is the gem that the Sods are, has gotten out. While it is a great thing that more people now appreciate , love and are aware of the great valueour protected wild lands, sometimes something can be lived too much. That has been happening here. It has become clear that too much of a good thing worhout any management is in text detrimental to these very special and fragile places that were set aside for protection in the first place.

To that end, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy in partnership with U.S. Forest Service - Monongahela National Forest has created the Dolly Sods Wilderness Stewards program to help us monitor & understand data around visitation levels, and to help facilitate a better experience for visitors while also communicating important information about Dolly Sods, as well as best practices for successful and minimally impactful visit such as Leave No Trace.

By Dave Johnston The month of September gave us a chance to finish up and assess the results of several projects in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, gear up for the hectic fall leaf season, and begin planning for the future. Levels of Visitation The Forest Service first installed registration boxes at the...

11/12/2021

First snow real / measurable snow of the season set to hit the high plateaus Saturday - Tuesday

A cold front moved through the West Virginia highlands overnight, and It is ushering in cooler air Friday (today) Saturday, a second, stronger cold front moves through with limited moisture, dropping temperatures enough to support several hours of light upslope snow (snow formed by air being lifted and cooled as it flows over high terrain).

Another clipper systems will be dropping southeast out of Canada into Lake Erie will drag yet another cold front through with some more limited moisture and associated additional light upslope snow Sunday night, ending Monday evening.

The 3-day snowfall total (Saturday - Monday) will likely be around 2-to-6 inches (ending with the 7 am Tuesday National Weather Service official snowfall reports). Following this short lived spurt of winter there will be a rapid warm up mid to late in next week.

For Saturday: Colder air begins to filter in early Saturday morning & some limited post frontal moisture will support light upslope snow developing between 6 and 8 am. Accumulations should stay light as snow ends quickly by early afternoon. Colder drier air quickly moves into the area and temperatures will drop to around freezing by late morning and stay there during the afternoon. Snow accumulations above 3,000 ft. to be 1/2” to 2 inches by 7 am Sunday morning.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, lows in the 20's F, highs near 40 F. More light upslope snow develops around midnight with temperatures once again falling below freezing around that time.

Monday: Cold with lows in the 20's F with highs staying around freezing. Morning light upslope snow continues, tapering off late afternoon and early evening. New snow accumulations by 7 am Tuesday, 2-to-4 inches.

Tuesday: Cold, morning lows around 20 F, highs 28 to 32 F.

Wednesday/Thursday: a rapid warmup ensues with highs in the mid-50's F both afternoons!

Keep an eye on local forecasts as they can be very changeable. Often we have seen lower predictions that ended up substantially higher worh harsher conditions

Forecast snowfall totals (inches) for the 3-day period from two 2 weather models are below. Both models are forecasting 6-to-7 inches.

Here is the US GFS Weather Model 3-Day Snowfall Forecast (inches) for the 3 days ending on Tuesday around 7 am. I’d you are planning to visit during this time please be properly prepared for cold wintry snowy weather. Use caution.