Bays Mountains

 

If looking to the south-southwest from High Knob, it seems as if several odd, "outlier" peaks seem to jut out from behind the low ridgeline of Clinch Mountain. These peaks, in fact, are some of the most distinctive features visible on the far horizon from the Knob, especially when facing in this direction. These "peaks" are actually not separate mountains but are all part of a complex of ridges located near Kingsport, Tennessee known as Bays Mountain or, in some cases, the "Bays Mountains."

Although most residents of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee might just know Bays Mountain as the long ridgeline above Kingsport (and the namesake park found on top of the ridge), the Bays Mountains are actually much, much more. The ridge making up Bays Mountain is a long, southwest-to-northeast trending ridgeline that is part of the Ridge and Valley Province of Appalachia (see the separate placeholder on the Ridge and Valley for more info). Along this ridge, a number of peaks and spur ridges stick out as distinctive features in the regional landscape. Chimneytop Mountain, for example - a pointed, rocky peak that dominates the view from I-81 south of Kingsport - is one of these spur ridges on the larger Bays Mountain ridgeline.

 

So, why is Bays Mountain there? After all, there aren't any similar ridges nearby in the same area. The answer lies in the same forces that created this portion of the mountains millions of years ago. During this time, immense pressure from colliding continental plates caused rocks in this region to buckle and fold. Here at Bays Mountain, this folding created a "syncline," or a downward, U-shaped fold in underlying rock strata.

 

...but wait, how could a U-shaped fold create a mountain instead of a valley? In the case of Bays Mountain, the rocks folded downward at the base of this "U" were more resistant to erosion than those on either higher side. This meant that, over time, erosion wore away these higher layers, leaving what was once the bottom of this syncline as a new ridge rising above the surrounding landscape. Other famous Ridge and Valley outlier mountains, such as northern Virginia's Massanutten Mountain, were "built" in this same way. In this sense, when you look at Bays Mountain, you are really looking at a mountain that was essentially built in reverse!