ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310070
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LARRY TIMBS
MARK your calendars now if you're searching for a dazzling, sensory explosion of color less than a 31/2-hour drive from Roanoke. But be flexible on the dates for the big attraction.
The largest and most spectacular display of Catawba rhododendron in the United States is expected to be in full bloom in the third or fourth week in June atop Roan Mountain - a breathtaking expanse shared by Tennessee and North Carolina - about 35 miles southeast of Bristol.
Emphasis is on expected.
No one can precisely predict the peak bloom dates of the 200 acres or so of rhododendron gardens atop 6,285-foot Roan Mountain - called in 1840 by Harvard botanist-explorer Asa Gray "without a doubt, the most beautiful mountain east of the Rockies."
Nature sort of does its own thing, on its own terms, when it comes to all those rhododendron bursting forth to paint the top of Roan Mountain in stunning reddish-purple.
This year, for example, the 50th annual Rhododendron Festival - sponsored by the Roan Mountain Citizens Club - will be June 22-23 at the Roan Mountain State Park amphitheater, about 7 miles from the mountain top and its gardens. It's a good bet the rhododendron will be bursting with color then and will remain at their peak bloom for about seven to 10 days. But the smart thing to do before leaving home is to call the state park for a bloom update at 1-800-250-8620 or 423-772-3303.
That's the advice of Jennifer Laughlin, author of the 1991 book "Roan Mountain: A Passage of Time." Laughlin, a ranger naturalist at the 2,000-acre Roan Mountain State Park since 1980, says she never guarantees when the rhododendron, protected by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, will be at their peak beauty.
"I've been here for a long time, and I've learned that you can never tell," she said. "People call and they want to know when to come. We've even had people ask us if they came at such and such a date at two o'clock, if that was a good time ... if they could see the bloom."
"With the weather and such, it's just hard to tell. This time of year (April, when Laughlin was interviewed for this story) is much too early. You can't tell what buds are going to swell up and make flowers and what buds are going to make leaves."
Laughlin remembers one year when the plants seemed on track to burst into bloom in time for the Rhododendron Festival, only to be delayed by the weather. "It turned really, really cold in the middle of June," she said, "and they bloomed on the Fourth of July. "
So why are the gardens of rhododendron, in the mysterious grassy areas on Roan Mountain for as long as anyone can remember, so strikingly beautiful? Why do the plants thrive on Roan, one of the oldest mountains in the world?
Laughlin says the Catawba rhododendron takes to the dirt and to the cool mountain air of the Roan. "That particular species of rhododendron needs a high elevation and it needs a very acidic soil, and the Fraser fir and red spruce give it the acidic soil," she said. "When the little needles fall off the trees and such and the pines and anything in that family, they're very, very acidic. So that gives them [the rhododendron] exactly what they need. The more acidic your soil is, the better they will do."
So far, according to Laughlin, Roan Mountain has not shown severe signs of the effects of air pollution or acid rain and acid fog - so noticeable in the forest destruction on Mount Mitchell and on other mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee. However, the Roan is a fragile ecosystem, not at all immune to the ravages of air pollutants. There's always concern, Laughlin said, that pollution will begin to take its toll.
Already, there are some ominous clues that all is not perfect and unmarred on Roan Mountain, although visitors this year are not likely to see any effects of air pollution on the rhododendron blooms themselves.
"You can see some damage up there," Laughlin said. "I haven't looked at them closely this season, but I know last summer walking around the rhododendron gardens, a lot of the rhododendrons had yellowed. There was a lot of yellowing of the leaves and a lot of spotting on some of the leaves."
"You can see it also with the Fraser fir trees," she added. "Often, with those trees, the little delicate needles will yellow and drop off, and there's beginning to be a little damage there also. ... But I don't think the damage is as severe on Roan as it might be seen on Mount Mitchell."
Laughlin thinks the rhododendron blooms will be as spectacular as ever this year. People should know, she said, the characteristics of this mountain plant. "Their bloom changes from year to year according to whether the plants are in a rest period or not," Laughlin said. "Rhododendrons go through a natural cycle of just a prolific beautiful bloom, and then they'll rest a year or two.
"And they won't set that many flowers. And then people say, 'Oh, it's a bad year. They're not pretty.' But that's a natural cycle. That's normal. The plant is resting, basically, to reproduce. That's the function of flowering. After they have a good flower and they reproduce well and they set seeds, they rest a year or two, and then they have a good bloom again." |n n| Glen Hatfield, superintendent of Roan Mountain State Park, said the peak bloom season will attract up to 10,000 people a day on the winding, 10-mile-long two lane paved road connecting the state park to the top of the mountain. He called the month of June the mountain's busiest month, with upwards of 225,000 visitors expected.
Hatfield, who has worked at Roan Mountain for about 15 years, advises visitors during peak bloom days to be patient with heavy traffic and delays. "Anything they want to do [during peak blossom days] they'll have to stand in line," he said.
He noted that a goal of the U.S. Forestry Service, responsible for people and traffic on top of the mountain, is to keep all those thousands of cars moving. At times, traffic can get so thick that rangers won't permit people to pull their vehicles off to the side of the road.
"They make them continuously move," Hatfield said.
Visitors are welcome to come take in the majesty of Roan Mountain but they ought to understand the traffic and parking situation, agrees Durward Julian.
Julian is first vice president of the Roan Mountain Citizens Club, dedicated to boosting and promoting the nearby village of Roan Mountain, Tenn. (population 1,200-1,500), and to organizing and publicizing the Rhododendron Festival. He says that while a lot of people come to see the rhododendron gardens, some are unaware of the Rhododendron Festival and can get caught in festival traffic jams.
Julian, a lifelong resident of the village of Roan Mountain, about 35 miles from Bristol, noted that there are several large parking areas at the top of the mountain, site of the rhododendron gardens. However, expect these parking areas to be filled to capacity during those peak bloom days, he said: "Some people won't be able to park at the top of the mountain. They will have to keep driving through the loop."
The Rhododendron Festival will feature a U.S. Army band on June 22, and gospel quartet singing on June 23. Performances will be at the state park amphitheater. Other activities include clogging, displays of mountain arts and crafts and food booths. Admission is free.
If you want to go . . .
Want to see the dazzling Catawba rhododendron and some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in North America? Because there's no public transportation to the top of Roan Mountain, you'll most likely have to drive there yourself. Good advice during peak bloom days is to avoid Roan Mountain on the weekends. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a lot less crowded than weekends.
Also, the cabins and campsites at Roan Mountain State Park likely already are accounted for during the projected peak bloom days. But within an hour of Roan Mountain are restaurants and motels in Bristol, Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, Linville, Pineola, Elizabethton and Johnson City.
Larry Timbs teaches journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Catawba rhododendrons atop Roan Mountain greet visitorsby CNBin late June with a spectacular show of color. color.