On our November trip to the Cat Stairs of Greenbrier Pinnacle, Greg
Harrell and I approached the base of the cliffs in a steep, dry, boulder-filled
ravine. After about an hour in the ravine, we decided to hop over onto the
adjacent, rocky ridge that had plenty of exposed, broken rock walls and spines
that would provide some fun rock scrambling, which they did. These were fairly
typical rocky ridges which usually are not dangerous, just challenging.
Although, on this and other similar ridges, there are usually a few places
where, if you fell just right, you could break your neck, but the more likely
outcome would probably be just a broken femur or tibia. In that respect,
they’re no different than the stairs in your house. Just don’t fall and you’ll
be fine.
This small, wooded side ridge led to the base of the cliffs, at which
point we went right (south) toward our favorite lunch spot in the park – a nice
little nook with a roof and walls and a panoramic view of Mount LeConte across
the Greenbrier valley. We bushwhacked along the base of the cliffs, below the
Falcon Cliffs, to one of the two massive cuts in the cliff that lead to the
top. There’s a challenging little scramble along the edge of this cut in the
cliffs that leads to our secret nook, which we’ve named The Best Lunch Spot…
because that’s what it is. From here we have a good view across toward Falcon
Cliffs.
The name “Falcon Cliffs” is significant. Peregrine Falcons disappeared
from the park in the 1940s or 50s as their numbers dwindled due to toxic
pesticides in use at the time. In the 1980s the Park Service tried to
reintroduce these falcons back into the park, so they closed the Greenbrier
Pinnacle trail and set up a falcon “hacking” program (i.e., resettling pairs of
falcons near the cliffs, hoping they would re-establish themselves), but the
falcons didn’t stay and nest. However, in the 1990s a pair from somewhere found
their way to the cliffs near Alum Cave and have been nesting there ever since.
Sometime later a pair settled in the Charlies Bunion area, but still not on
Greenbrier Pinnacle.
Then in March, 2013, Greg and I made an early spring trip to the Cat
Stairs and were stunned when we heard a falcon’s screech. Once we got into the
cliffs and had an unobstructed view from our Best Lunch Spot, we were able to
see one, then two falcons sweeping and soaring along the cliffs and over the
top of the Pinnacle. After they had finished showing off their aerial
gyrations, they did something that hadn’t been done in decades – they both
landed in a little crack in the cliffs of Greenbrier Pinnacle. And they stayed.
And they chased away several ravens and hawks. The little crack was their new
home – “Falcon Cliffs” was born.
Greg and I went back several times that spring, and the two falcons
were always there, in that same spot – a crack in the cliffs, with a small pine
tree clinging tenaciously to a nearby ledge. We never heard or saw babies, but it
certainly looks as if the Peregrine Falcons have returned – permanently – to
Greenbrier Pinnacle. In each subsequent spring we returned, and yes, the
falcons were still there, acting like they owned the place, which is exactly
what you want to see because a “territorial” falcon is usually a nesting
falcon.
We didn’t expect to see the falcons on this November trip, and we
didn’t. I’ve been told the park’s falcons usually don’t migrate, but merely
hunker down during the cold months. Can’t say that I blame them because that’s
pretty much what I do, too. Every winter I stay here in East Tennessee, but I
don’t get out a lot… except in November, when the sun is shining on the ice in
the treetops, and the sky is a deep, deep blue, and the temperatures are hovering
right around freezing. I know the short, dark, cold days of winter are coming
soon, but on a day like today, they seem a thousand years away.
