Large area of roadless forested gorge known as the Smokehole Gorge. The few roads are private or old delapidated jeep trails. Surrounding area is privately owned although the TNC and USFS have easments or own nearby tracks. Downslope adjacent to the plot is a yellow oak - virginia red cedar woodland. See plots GRAN.45,46,47, and 49 for more context.;Large sheer exposed limestone cliff at the top of the S facing slope of a small water gap. The cliff is steep and somewhat rounded in areas and in others vertical, but with lots of blocky fractures. This is where lichen cover is the highest. There are old clam shells inbedded in some of the blocky sections of cliff. Most of the cliff lacks herbaceous vegetation with the exception of a few ferns, and graminoids. Low diversity eventhough it is limestone. Most likely due to highly erodable nature of limestone. The cliff is roughly 30 m tall with 5 % ledges and 20% overhangs.
Representativeness
Relatively large limestone cliff. Similar to type sampled in Powers Hollow. This is an infrequently sampled type due to extirpation from mining and isolated steep nature of the cliffs that are still intact. Similar cliffs can be observed to the S across t
