Brown Mountain Lodge and Creekside Cozy Cabin Rentals: Eastern US Continental Divide near Grandfather Mtn

Map of the North American Continental Divides

The Continental Divide is the water shed flow of water from mountain ranges around the world. Below is the picture fom the Divides in North America. The Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic River starts at the top of Grandfather Mountain and traverses through the Brown Mountain area which is part of the Grandfather Mountain Ranger district and surrounded by Pisgah National Forest.

The Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee are the result of the action of plate tectonics. The crust of our planet is composed of five primary plates, or huge pieces of rock which move very slowly over deeper layers of hot, pliable rock. Here you can see how the Appalachains were formed.

Some of the plates are composed of heavy oceanic crust, while others are made of lighter continental crust. At the middle of each oceanic plate a large crack pours forth lava onto the ocean floor. This causes oceanic plates to expand an inch or two every year. When oceanic crust is forced against continental crust, the oceanic crust is pushed underneath the continental crust. When continental crust is forced against continental crust, huge mountains usually are formed.
The Appalachian Mountains were formed in the remote past by collision of two continental crusts. During such mountain building, huge sheets of rock are pushed over each other. A rock layer called the Blue Ridge Thrust Sheet was moved over 60 miles to cover what is now Grandfather Mountain.
These mountains were once much higher (10 times as high!) than they are today. Erosion over hundreds of millions of years has carried away most of the rocks to form thick layers of sediment all across the Piedmont, Coastal Plain, and in the Atlantic Ocean. At Grandfather mountain, erosion has worn away the Blue Ridge Thrust Sheet from over top of the underlying older rock, allowing us to study them. Geologists call this a “window” in time.

Here is the video of Grandfather Mountain the first Billion Years!

A 23.3-mile mountain stream, Wilson Creek was added to the National Wild and Scenic River System in 2000. Much of Wilson Creek lies within the Pisgah National Forest. The stream starts atop 5,920-foot high Grandfather Mountain, just 100 yards above the Blue Ridge Parkway. Twenty miles later, the headwaters rush through the Blue Ridge Mountains into a 200-foot deep gorge of granite bedrock.

The Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic River gorge is one of North Carolina's best kept secrets for the natural beauty and unspoiled commercialism. The river and terrain has been a family favorite spot for exploring in the great Pisgah National Forest part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Here is a view of a kayaker taking in the beauty of the Gorge as the Wilson Creek has cut a path through the boulders and solid rock formations that are billions of years old. Thees are the oldest exposed rock formations and mountains in the world.

For perfect home base accomodations to enjoy your Mountain Adventures visit the Brown Mountain Cabin Rentals website. Tons of pic's video and details of the Wilson Creek River Gorge area and the fun stuff to do here. We are centrally located between Grandfather Mountain, Blowing Rock and Lenoir.

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