The Appalachian Regions

The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest mountains on Earth and the oldest in North America. The 1,600 mile long chain of mountains run from southern Canada south to Alabama and Georgia. For the purposes of this website, we will limit our explorations to the portion of the mountains that are in the United States.

The Appalachian Mountains are contained in four physiographic provinces

  • The New England Province
  • The Ridge and Valley Province
  • The Blue Ridge Mountain Province
  • The Appalachian Plateau Province
Greatvalley-map.jpg: Pfly derivative work: Perhelion, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The system of mountains can be divided into three sections.

I. The Northern Mountains.

Geologically, the northern section is comprised of all of the range north of the Hudson River. This section of the Appalachians contains the Longfellow Mountains in Maine, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Green Mountains in Vermont, The Berkshires in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the Taconic Range in New York. While the Adirondack Mountains are not geologically a part of the Appalachian chain, for our purposes we are including them in the website. Rather than split states, I will shift the boundaries to encompass complete states.

The states included Northern Mountains are:

  • Maine – MaineMountainDreams.com
  • New Hampshire – NewHampshireMountainDreams.com
  • Vermont – VermontMountainDreams.com
  • Massachusetts – MassachusettsMountainDreams.com
  • Connecticut – ConnecticutMountainDreams.com
  • New York – NewYorkMountainDreams

II. The Central Mountains.

The central section of the Appalachian Mountains runs from the Hudson river south to the New River that bisects the mountains in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. It is in this region that the Blue Ridge Mountains make their appearance.

The states encompassing the Central Mountains are:

  • Pennsylvania – PesylvaniaMountainDreams.com
  • Maryland – MarylandMountainDreams.com
  • Virginia – VirginiaMountainDreams.com
  • West Virginia – WestVirginiaMountainDreams.com

III. The Southern Mountains.

The southern section runs from the New River south. The Blue Ridge Mountains are the prominent peaks in the region. Moving from East to west across the region you have the Eastern Blue Ridge Front, The Western Blue Ridge (or Unaka)Front, the Ridge -and-Valley Appalachians, and the Cumberland Plateau.

The states that encompass the Southern Mountains are:

  • Kentucky – KentuckyMountainDreams.com
  • North Carolina – NorthCorolinaMountainDreams.com
  • Tennessee – TennesseeMountainDreams.com
  • Georgia – GeorgiaMountainDreams.com
  • Alabama – AlabamaMountainDreams.com

We will be using these groupings to sort our posts and articles throughout the site.