The first time High Country photographer Leslie Restivo saw a Brocken spectre, the circular glory caught her attention first. Then she noticed her shadow in the rainbow’s center. Exhilarated, she danced around, throwing her hands up in the air. “I immediately thought, ‘I got a rainbow,’ but I knew that that didn’t make sense.”
The Brocken spectre phenomenon occurs when a magnified shadow is cast on a nearby cloud or mist and surrounded by a rainbow-colored ring, called a “glory.” On Grandfather Mountain, the low angle of early morning or late afternoon sun combined with a light fog below an observer’s elevation create ideal conditions for this to occur.
In misty, elevated environments like Grandfather Mountain, Brocken spectres can appear as magnified shadows surrounded by a circular rainbow glory. photograph by Leslie Restivo
A volunteer with the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation saw Restivo’s reaction and told her about Brocken spectres. Since that first viewing, Restivo’s had the good fortune of seeing and photographing the ethereal illusions seven more times on the mountain.
Grandfather Mountain is home to 16 natural habitats — its exceptional environment lends to conditions such as those that cause Brocken spectres. The wild biodiversity found here means that new surprises can be discovered with every visit. The vestiges of summer on the mountain — multiple colors of twinkling fireflies and hikes past blooming pinkshell azaleas to spectacular views — all reflect the singularity of this UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve. Whether it’s your first time on Grandfather Mountain or you could hike its trails blindfolded, read on for five things you may not know about the national treasure in our own backyard.
Folks come to Grandfather Mountain for all sorts of reasons – the well-known ones, like the Swinging Bridge and the opportunity to see black bears up close – and to discover something new. Visit Grandfather and create your adventure today!
Visitors can take in 360-degree views of the park from the Mile-High Swinging Bridge. photograph by Monty Combs
Grandfather Mountain is comprised of two entities: the state park and the land managed by the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. Hugh Morton, who owned Grandfather Mountain from 1952 until his death in 2006, first developed the 300-million-year-old geologic formation as a travel destination. In 2008, Morton’s heirs sold a large part of the land to the State of North Carolina, which developed it into the state park.
A year later, the Grandfather Stewardship Foundation formed to operate and manage 700 acres of the mountain. This part of the mountain contains hiking trails, the Mile High Swinging Bridge, Wilson Center for Nature Discovery, Wildlife Habitats, and more. As a nonprofit, the foundation works to conserve the mountain and provides inspiring and educational opportunities for those who visit.
Did you know that the iconic Grandfather Trail bridges the two sides of Grandfather Mountain managed by the stewardship foundation and the state park system? Access the mountain from the Top Shop parking lot in Linville or the Daniel Boone Scout Trail on the east side and complete the challenging yet exhilarating hike along the upper ridgeline. Along the route, hikers are treated to 360-degree views of mountains, rocky pinnacles, and a landscape shaped by unpredictable weather and high winds — in fact, naturalist John Muir described it as, “the face of all Heaven come to earth.”
Grandfather Trail is considered one of the most technical hikes on the East Coast. Hikers should allow around five hours to complete the 4.8-mile roundtrip hike, which includes in-place cables and ladders to gain about 1,800 feet in elevation. Rare plants, including pinkshell azaleas and Roan Mountain bluets, grow along the route, which hikers follow to reach the ultimate reward: sweeping views found at the MacRae, Attic Window, and Calloway peaks.
Learn about the mountain’s native Yonahlossee salamander at the Wilson Center for Nature Discovery. Photography courtesy of Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation
In the early 1900s, herpetologist Emmett Reid Dunn first identified and described the Yonahlossee salamander, found on the slopes of the mountain.
Jacob Morse, natural resource management specialist for Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, says this comparatively large salamander has a few interesting adaptations. “Usually when people think of salamanders, they think of streams and water, but the Yonahlossees are entirely terrestrial.”
Despite living on land during every stage of their lifecycle, these woodland amphibians breathe through their skin, not lungs. “They’re able to have a few other body modifications that the lungs normally wouldn’t allow for, like a retractable tongue,” Morse explains.
Although an abundance of Yonahlossee salamanders live on Grandfather Mountain, their nocturnal lifestyle makes it unlikely that visitors will see them. However, within the Wilson Center for Nature Discovery, guests can learn more about the fascinating creatures. And young visitors can rally behind Yonni, the Yonahlossee salamander mascot, for the Junior Naturalist Program. Opening this fall, Yonni’s Clubhouse will bring a hands-on science and environmental education center for explorers ages five to 12.
Visit Grandfather Mountain during a summer evening to see its various species of fireflies aglow. photograph by Leslie Restivo
“That’s a credit to how many different ecological communities we have here in the park,” John Caveny says, the foundation’s vice president of Conservation and Education. From the candle firefly’s long yellow light to the Christmas-lights firefly’s greenish blink, each species finds nooks on the mountain that meet the needs of its specific habitat.
Fireflies emerge from the forest floor, bioluminescent organs aglow, for a few weeks every summer as part of their mating process. “All of them have a different flash pattern,” Caveny says. “The color of the light organ is just a little bit different on each individual species.”
Blue ghost fireflies emit a bluish-green light that shines for up to a minute at a time. “They hover right above the forest floor and when you see a whole lot of them emerging at one time,” Caveny adds. “It is just absolutely magical.”
When synchronous fireflies appear in large numbers, males eventually begin to flash in a coordinated fashion, reminiscent of a blinking string of Christmas lights. “Then you’ll have what we call the ‘bright period’ and then a ‘dark period,’” Morse says. “In the bright period, males fly around flashing their patterns, trying to call out to a female. During the dark pattern, females respond but they have a much softer light than the males, so you don’t see them as prevalently.”
Glow worms, perhaps the most curious of the mountain’s bioluminescent wonders, stay on the ground and are often overlooked. “They’re near the field going towards the bottom of the hill and they look like little blue LED lights all over the side of the mountain,” Restivo says.
At the annual Grandfather Glows event that occurs three nights from mid-June to mid-July, these brilliant creatures fill the night with wonder.
Stop at the Chronolog Project photo station at Half Moon Overlook and snap a picture of the surroundings. Photography courtesy of Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation
Around the mountain, guests find several small photo stations — wooden posts with signs and a camera mount. The signs invite visitors to take photos, then add them to the website of the Chronolog Project, a citizen science initiative.
Each photo adds to a growing collection of images that create a timelapse view of the area. This allows the stewardship foundation to monitor vegetation regrowth and document environmental changes related to climate change.
“Our trees are beginning to leaf out sooner each year; the converse of that is, in the fall, they start to change color and drop their leaves sooner in the year,” Caveny says. “With these stations, we can start tracking all that. In the long term, it helps us just have a better data set to know what’s happening big picture in the environment, not just on an individual species level.”
Eager to do your part as a steward of this exceptional environment and the 70-plus rare or endangered species it holds? Whether you’re a regular visitor to the mountain or a first-timer seeking an elevated destination to beat the summertime heat, click here to learn more about this one-of-a-kind place.
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