Order of Visit:  High Point #26

Date Visited:  January 2, 2021

Route Taken:  Walk from FAA tower on Black Mountain Ridge Road to summit – 0.2 miles roundtrip

Type of Terrain:  Getting to the summit requires a drive (or hike) up Black Mountain Ridge Road – a single-lane dirt and crumbled asphalt road with plenty of large potholes. The road up is drivable in good weather conditions, provided your vehicle has a high enough clearance. Otherwise, you’re better off walking up the moderately steep two miles from Highway 160.  

Elevation:  4,139 feet

Ancestral Lands: Cherokee, Shawnee, Yuchi

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what’s in a Name?

With an ominous sounding name like Black Mountain, you might expect an ink-colored peak distinctively rising up above it surroundings. But, in reality, the mountain is nestled in the green Appalachian Mountains right along the state’s border with of Virginia. 

Today, the darkness surrounding the mountain is mostly in the form of poverty and strip mining ripping the land open to harvest coal. Harlan Country, where Black Mountain is located, was once the most famous coal-mining town in Appalachia, and was notoriously known as ‘Bloody Harlan’ because of the violence between the miners and the coal companies in the 1930s.

But coal wasn’t the first industry interested in this rural location. Like other parts of Southern Appalachian, Black Mountain provides an elevation perfect for the Northern Hardwood forest ecosystem. As a result, intense logging operations occurred here throughout the19th century.

Fires swept over Black Mountain in the fall of 1896, leaving the mountain charred, and perhaps contributing to its current name.

An alternate name for the peak is Katahrin’s Mountain, which crops up in the lyrics of the traditional bluegrass song, “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” However, it’s unclear where the name Katahrin originated or how it’s linked to Black Mountain.

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TRIP SUMMARY

When I tagged Delaware’s high point right before Christmas 2020, I made it over the hump. I’d finally completed 50% of the state high points. Although Delaware wasn’t a particularly arduous high point, it lit a fire under my feet.

I was going to double down my efforts to reach on all 50 high points before my 50th birthday. With less than 3 years left, I needed to pick up the pace. So I set my New Year’s resolution for 2021 to complete 15 high points. This would bring my total to 40 by the end of the year.

And so, that is how Black Mountain, Kentucky became my first high point of 2021. Keith and I were taking a long road trip back to Texas in January, and our route was going to bring us within a hair’s breadth of a high point. So how could we not take the detour to help me start the year out on the right foot?

After spending the night in nearby Kingsport, Tennessee, we set out to drive the 50 miles north to Kentucky’s high point. In that that relatively short distance we’d also drive into three separate states – beginning in Tennessee, then driving through the southwest corner of Virginia, and finally just barely over the border into Kentucky.

The drive was pretty unremarkable until we hit the town of Appalachia, Virginia, where we turned onto Highway 160. The rural highway is 8.5 miles of hairpin turns and switchbacks as you climb steeply toward the Kentucky border.

This road was as curvy as any one I’ve ever driven on in my life (except Lombard Street in San Francisco, CA), and I had to really focus and breathe to avoid getting motion sick on the hellacious drive up.

As we finally crested the summit of the ridge we’d been climbing for the prior 20 minutes, we saw the green bullet-riddled road sign on Highway 160 announcing, “Black Mountain Elevation 4,145 Highest Point in KY.”

Of course, I knew from prior research, this sign wasn’t the true high point. It was merely the border between Virginia and Kentucky and signaled the paved parking area for Black Mountain on the side of the highway.

Keith pulled off the the side of the road so I could take a few photos of the Black Mountain sign, along with the two signs welcoming me to Kentucky and Virginia on opposite sides of the road (depending on which direction I was facing).

The main parking area was large enough for several vehicles to park and/or turn around, and this spot marked the beginning of the final 2-mile climb to the true summit via Black Mountain Ridge Road.

I was a bit apprehensive about what we might find on the road. I’d read a number of trip summaries where visitors complained the road was undriveable in winter conditions – and this was January! But there were two more specific reasons I was worried.

First off, we’d had a massive snow storm on the East Coast that dropped close to a foot of snow just two weeks earlier. So I wondered what that might mean for our drive up. Luckily, there wasn’t a drop of snow lingering on the ground the entire way.

Second, our drive down I-81 yesterday afternoon was filled with icy rain. Yet there was no evidence of ice out here either. In fact it was a balmy 50 degrees this morning, and the dirt access road seemed like it might be manageable.

We were driving Keith’s SUV on this road trip, so we crossed our fingers and decided to go for it. We’d see how far we could drive, and if we came across an impassible spot, we’d park and hike the rest of the way up to the summit from there.

The road was pretty messy from the recent rain and melting snow. Much of the crumbling asphalt on the one-lane road was gone and the road with lots of giant potholes filled with water. As we crept upward, I was tremendously grateful it wasn’t icy or snowy. I’m 100% sure we would have opted to hike up the final miles if we had either of those obstacles to contend with.

As we slowly climbed further, it was becoming very apparent that there were very few places to turn around on the 2-mile stretch of road. We definitely didn’t want to get stuck or have to back down this road in reverse if we got to an impassible section!

After several minutes of bouncing down the rough road and trying our best to avoid the biggest of the muddy potholes, we saw the white bulb of the FAA radar tower ahead of us. This sight meant we were close. It was time to take advantage of the flat, wide area near the radar tower to park the SUV and walk to the summit.

About 350 meters beyond where we parked, we could see a series of tall antenna towers poking above the final band of bare trees. As we hiked toward them, we came upon a handful of small gray outbuildings. Now this was the actual summit of Black Mountain. It wasn’t pretty, but it was definitely higher that everything around it.

Behind one of the small outbuildings, there was a two-foot high concrete pillar with a plaque welcoming us to Kentucky’s high point. A large flat boulder stood behind it, making the perfect stage for my summit photo without all the antenna clutter around us.

I’m might have enjoyed climbing the fire tower on the summit to get an even better view of the mountain and valleys obscured by the trees. But it wasn’t possible. The cab of the fire tower was missing, and so was the lowest portion of the stairs. So I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

It’s probably for the best though. The one area I could see below me was dominated by strip mining operations on the lower part of the mountain.

This mountaintop could have seen the same fate too. But luckily, the state of Kentucky stepped in and purchased the mineral and timber rights for the summit in 1999 to prevent it from being permanently destroyed or altered like much of the surrounding landscape.

After a brief stay on the summit, we made our way back to the SUV again. We were barely starting down the road when we saw a white pickup truck heading our way. Thankfully, we hadn’t gone far and still had the option of pulling over to the side of the road so he had enough room pass. We wouldn’t have had that same luxury on the majority of the road.

And so, with Kentucky’s high point scratched off my bucket list, 2021 is officially off to a good start. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have the opportunity to successfully claim many more high points and take a giant step closer to my goal!

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DETAILS

When to Visit: This hike is open year-round, however, if there is snow or ice on Black Mountain Ridge Road, you should absolutely hike the final two miles instead attempting to drive to the summit. If you get stuck on the remote and narrow road, you won’t have any options to extricate your car, and you probably won’t have cell service to call for help.

Getting There:  Black Mountain is located approximately 50 miles northwest of Kingsport, TN. Despite the signs at the Virginia/Kentucky border announcing the high point at the road, you still have a 2-mile off-road drive or trek to get to the actual summit of Black Mountain.

Entrance Fees: None.

Parking:  If you plan to hike the final two miles, there are two large parking areas where you can leave you car along Highway 160. The first parking area is paved pullout (with space for 6-8 cars) near the entrance to Black Mountain Ridge Road. The second/overflow parking is a dirt pull out (with space for 3-4 more cars) near the “Welcome to Virginia” road sign.

Accessibility: If Black Mountain Ridge Road is passable, you can drive to the summit in a SUV or pickup truck.

How Tall is Black Mountain?: Sources differ on the actual elevation for this state high point. The plaque on Black Mountain’s summit say it’s 4,139 feet high. Meanwhile, the green roadsigns down on Highway 160 (presumably placed there by the state of Kentucky) proclaim the summit is 4,145 feet. And then there’s Google, which inexplicably claims it’s 4,144′.

It probably doesn’t matter which of these numbers is the most accurate, since Kentucky’s the next closest peak is 500 feet lower than this one. Nonetheless, out an abundance of caution, I deferred to the elevation on the summit plaque (and on Geology.com), which lists the Black Mountain as 4,139 feet above sea level.

Resources:

• An Overview of Black Mountain (Summit Post)
• Hiking Route to Summit (All Trails)
• Black Mountain (Only in Your State)