67: Least-Immersive

Hairy Woodpecker - Warm Springs Mountain


B A T H  C O U N T Y,  V A

Warm Springs Mountain is The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) largest preserve in Virginia, yet my visit today  (one hour before a business meeting nearby) is the least immersive of any of the now sixty-seven TNC properties seen over the past decade.  Lasting only forty-five minutes, this stopover allows only a short jaunt halfway up one of this 9,000 acre preserve’s three main trails.  

The Dan Ingalls Overlook trail is the northernmost of the three.  It’s a grassy ridgetop path past several well-installed interpretive signs.  Being mid-winter, the dormant trees allow consistent views of the un-fragmented, largely roadless forest and conservation lands stitched together by TNC here in the Allegheny Highlands of western Virginia.  Though my time is abbreviated, it lasts just long enough to extract a strong sense of this beautiful mountain’s essence. 

Warm Springs Mountain in Bath County is located in a Rushmore setting of Virginia – one of the state’s four very best outdoor places to visit.  Bath, along Virginia’s western border, is Brigadoon-like.  Isolated, high in elevation, low in population, and chock full of stunning scenery.  Bath sits proudly next to Virginia’s Back Bay, Barrier Islands, and Clinch River upon the Rushmore of its greatest places.

My visit is just long enough also to capture a photograph of a skittish Hairy Woodpecker – a new addition to my birding life list.  This addition and the awesome extracted essence of Warm Springs Mountain will be nice keepsakes from this least-immersive TNC visit…not bad for a guy wearing loafers and khakis.

Dan Ingalls Trail, Warm Springs Mountain

LEARN MORE ABOUT TNC’S WORK AT WARM SPRINGS MOUNTAIN HERE.
Location: Ingalls Overlook Trail, Williamsville, VA, USA

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