Reddish Knob

Author's Comments

Most overlooks give you a direction. A preferred view, a cardinal point to face, a valley that opens only one way. Reddish Knob gives you everything, all at once, and the sky above is as much the subject as the land below. The gravel road climbs from the valley and deposits you near the top, which feels like a small betrayal of effort until you step out and the wind finds you. Even in June, there is something alpine about this place. The summit is grassy and open and the horizon completes itself in every direction. West into the Alleghenies, east toward the Blue Ridge, north and south along ridges that soften with distance into something almost watercolor. I have been here at sunrise in early October and the valley fog was so complete it looked like a white sea below us, the ridges rising as islands. That is the photograph Reddish Knob holds in reserve for the patient. You cannot engineer it. You can only show up early, drive the gravel road in the dark with the windows down, and wait to see what the morning decides to do. Bring more layers than you think you need. The wind is not symbolic, it is constant and serious. And bring a wide lens, though know that no single frame will contain what you are actually seeing. That might be the most honest thing about this summit. Some places exceed the frame.

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