Glades Road Caves 2/3/22

The Google Earth view above shows the undulating waves of rock in the Highlands-Cashiers area. The yellow pin is near our Glades Cove Caves parking spot (around 3,000 ft. alt.), just over an hour's drive from Sylva, with the bald granite of Slickrock just above it. The ridge further back is Blackrock Mt. and behind it against the skyline, Whiteside Mt. (4930 alt.).  (Click to see larger views of the images.)

For a gray, overcast day, all 22 of us had a great deal of fun and adventure at the caves of Glades Road. The trail itself had accumulated a bit of down trees and limbs that had to be moved or cut or cleared for us to get through/crawl through in several places. We certainly left the trail in better condition than when we found it. 

Heavy with pine and rhododendron, with one tiny instance of running water next to the trail, the drier and higher acidic soil seems to challenge the growth of ground plants, with fewer showings than previous hikes.

Several patches of galax, but one patch in particular had enormous leaves.

Pipsissewa

Christmas fern

Club moss

Crane fly orchid's winter leaf (purple underside not shown)

Our goal of course was reaching the piles of humongous, building-sized, overlapping rocks that created a cave-like atmosphere within the tumble. These might be best described as rock shelters as they are not the type of caves created by erosion and running water.

During the hike a discussion was begun on whether the cave-like shelters that we were seeing would be safe in a lightning storm. (Photo above by J. Crawford). How far into a rock shelter or cave must one go to be safe? From what I'm reading, a simple direct measurement is probably not possible to give, as much depends on the conductivity of the rock and the degree of water flow in the shelter. Accident reports show that lightning has caused injury as far as 100 feet from the strike point. In summary of what I'm reading, in a thunderstorm it is safer crouching in a open field being pelted by the rain than dry and inside the rock shelters that we were seeing. For more details see: back country lightning risk management or warning-lightning kills or cavechat.org.

The rocks were definitely good for lichens. Above is a good example of rock tripe. Tasty? If soaked for hours to remove bitterness and purgative properties, they are used as famine food in some cultures but more common in Asian food (Wikipedia). 

Uncertain, checking with experts on the name of this lichen, update later.

We wonder what geological forces made these serpentine and swirling patterns within the rock formation. The answer is probably in Bill Jacobs’ book Whence These Special Places? The Geology of Cashiers, Highlands & Panthertown Valley.

We thankfully got back before any rain developed.