Garden Mountain

The Garden Mountain area borders about 5 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Both the AT and Walker Gap on Garden Mountain offer superb views of Burkes Garden, a high-elevation pastoral valley. The area includes the headwaters of Lick Creek, a native trout stream and home to the endangered Tennessee Dace. A 2.5-mile trail follows Lick Creek, with its numerous beaver dams, ponds, and marshes.

On Garden Mountain are found trace fossils of worm tracks, where the animals burrowed along the surface of sand beds more than 400 million years ago. There are also spectacular cliffs and rock formations.

The Forest Service characterizes 96 percent of the area as showing little or no signs of human alteration. More than two-thirds of this unroaded area provides opportunities for soli­tude and back-country experiences. The area contains 913 acres of possible old growth, as well as mapped, existing old growth forest.

The Forest Service identified a Garden Mountain roadless area. In this proposal, the Appalachian Trail corridor borders the roadless area.

Approximate Size: 3,461 acres
Location: Bland County, south of Burkes Garden, Wythe Ranger District
Topos: Garden Mountain, Hutchison Rock