The Appalachians are pretty interesting. From afar, they look like gently rolling hills (with a few exceptions.) Then, if you try and climb those hills, you'll

The Appalachians are pretty interesting. From afar, they look like gently rolling hills (with a few exceptions.) Then, if you try and climb those hills, you'll find extremely rocky trails and lots of cliffs. If you hike on the west coast in say, the Cascades, the mountains look steep and rocky, but the trails are much more gradual and dirt covered. It was a huge surprise to me after moving to the east coast. My own personal theory is that since the Appalachians are older, the mountains are simply crumbling. Instead of being huge rocks, they're huge piles of rocks. That, combined with having way more precipitation to erode the topsoil away makes for the more rugged trails on the east coast.