From north to south, the trail crosses Va 615, Suiter Road, to enter the cluster at Hunting Camp Creek Wilderness.

[3] Roads and trails in the cluster are shown on National Geographic Map 787 (Blacksburg, New River Valley).

The land form, climate, soils and geology of the Appalachian highlands, as well as its evolutionary history, have created one of the most diverse collection of plants and animals in the deciduous forests of the temperate world.

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program gives a list of these species for the counties included in the cluster, Bland, Smyth and Wythe.

Among these are:[6][7] Mammals: Amphibians: Fish: Annelida (segmented worms): Arachnida (spiders and pseudoscorpions): Bivalvia (mussels): Crustacea (amphipods, isopods and decapods): Gastropoda (snails): Turbellaria (flatworms): Coleoptera (beetles): Diplopoda (millipedes): Diplura (diplurans): Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths): Mecoptera (scorpionflies): Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies): Plecoptera (stoneflies): Non-vascular plants: Vascular plants: Plant communities include: The cluster is in the Ridge and Valley Province that extends along the western boundary of Virginia.

The province marks the eastern boundary in the Paleozoic era of an older land surface on the east.

After eating some potatoes, he covered the peelings with dirt in order to hide his presence from Indians.

Later explorers, finding a large patch of potatoes that had sprouted from the peelings, named the place as "Burk's Garden".

[126] Other clusters of the Wilderness Society's "Mountain Treasures" in the Jefferson National Forest (north to south):