The rugged topography of the Monongahela National Forest is one of our favorite areas to visit.  We usually stay at the Red Creek Campground managed by the U.S. Forest Service or in the handful of dispersed campsites in the nearby area.  The small, primitive Red Creek Campground sits on top of the Allegheny Plateau with quick access to amazing views of rolling mountains, wind-swepted stone formations, stunted red spruce trees, and seemly endless mountain laurel, azaleas, and huckleberry bushes.  More than 10,000 acres in size,  the Monongahela National Forest is one of the few federally protected wilderness areas on the East Coast.

What makes Dolly Sods so unique is the fauna and flora contained in bog and heath eco-types which are more commonly typical to southern Canada, not West Virginia.  During the Pleistocene Epoch, a period of time occurring roughly between 2,588,000 and 11,700 years ago, glacial forces created the ecology present in the Dolly Sods Wilderness today. During that time, massive continental ice sheets drifted from the upper north, driving both fauna and flora to the Appalachian region. The movement of these sheets stripped top soil and deposited rock and boulders generally found in portions of Canada.