Coopers Rock State Forest hugs the eastern rim of the Cheat River Canyon, with upland slopes rising to 2,400 ft (732 m) above sea level, nearly double the horizontal elevation of the Mon River Trail. Although the spring wildflower show on the mountain lags a week or two behind that at lower elevations, it's starting to make good progess. From top: Clay Run at a healthy flow; the reticulated leaves of downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), a common terrestrial orchid of the local dry woods; the young, intricately-patterned leaves of rattlesnake hawkweed (Hieracium venosum), so named because it grows in the same habitat favored by timber rattlesnakes; long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata), a lilac-colored beauty with amusingly-long spurs; yet more early blue coshosh (Caulophyllum giganteum), because I can never get enough of this delicate, shrubby-looking herb; broadleaf toothwort (Cardamine diphylla), also known as two-leaved toothwort and crinkleroot, a member of the mustard family with edible roots and blunt-toothed leaves bearing striking purple undersides; round-lobed hepatica (Anemone americana), an upland relative of sharp-lobed hepatica that prefers drier, more acidic soils; wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), also known as windflower and nightcaps, which forms extensive colonies in humus-rich soils along streambanks; the brilliant red berries of partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), a trailing, evergreen herb of forest floors; more cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), whose leaves will die back in spring before the orchid blooms in summer; halberd-leaved yellow violet (Viola hastata). a ubiquitous, early spring violet of rich, decidous woods; and (below), typical timber rattlesnake habitat near Clay Run.
