Stony Man Mountain summit
— a profile the ridge wears like a face turned up.
Not only on a wall.
Stony Man Mountain summit, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“The second-highest summit in Shenandoah, named for the rough human profile the cliffs throw against the sky from the valley floor. The trail up from Skyland is short and forgiving, a mile and a half round-trip on old carriage road, and ends on greenstone ledges that fall away into the Page Valley a half-mile below. On clear evenings the Massanutten ridge runs across the middle distance like a second horizon line. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Stony Man rises to 4,011 feet on the main ridge of Shenandoah National Park, second only to Hawksbill among the park's summits. The trailhead leaves Skyline Drive at milepost 41.7, immediately north of Skyland Resort, and follows the route of an old carriage road built by George Pollock around 1900 when Skyland was a private mountain retreat. The summit is 1.6 miles round-trip with about 340 feet of climb. The cliffs are Catoctin greenstone, metamorphosed basalt from lava flows about 570 million years old.
The summit ledges face northwest into the Page Valley, with the South Fork of the Shenandoah River 2,500 feet below and the long ridge of Massanutten Mountain across it. On clear days the Allegheny Front carries the horizon another forty miles west. Peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs and the National Park Service closes some pitches during raptor breeding season, mid-March through mid-August. The exposure draws weather faster than the elevation suggests; afternoon thunderstorms build along the ridge through summer.
Stony Man is the gentlest of Shenandoah's major summits. The Stony Man Trail leaves the parking area on the Appalachian Trail and forks left at a marked junction; the right fork is the AT continuing north. Skyland Resort, a tenth of a mile south on the Drive, has the closest lodging, dining, and water. Skyline Drive closes overnight when conditions ice; check the park's road status before a winter visit. Allow ninety minutes for the round-trip walk and time on the ledges.
