View from the East Fork Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway

View: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ / 5
Trails: None
Picnic Tables: None

The East Fork Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a great place to be when the leaves are changing color in the fall because the mountains are so close that you can see the individual trees. In fact, if you look closely, you will see the silver ghosts of dead American Chestnut trees. Once one of the most prolific trees in the Appalachian Mountains, the American Chestnut was hit with a fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) starting in the early 1900s. The fungus most likely came over on imported Japanese Chestnut trees, which are immune to the fungus. By 1940, over four billion trees had been killed nationwide, and the species was for the most part extinct except in a few places in California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Pacific northwest. The wood is so strong and rot-resistant that the dead trees still stand today.