Clay stops at the Peaks of Otter, three large rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, who explored the region, speculated that these were perhaps the country’s tallest mountains. In Notes on the State of Virginia , he wrote: “The mountains of the Blue Ridge, and of these the Peaks of Otter, are thought to be of a greater height, measured from their base, than any others in our country, and perhaps in North America.” You can see Jefferson’s field notes while exploring the spot in November 1815 here.
According to the National Park Service, the earliest European settlers in the area were Charles and Robert Ewing, who came from Scotland in about 1700. The Park Service notes: “Although there are several stories accounting for the Peaks of Otter name (some say it derives from the Cherokee ‘Atari’ or ‘Ottari’ for ‘high mountain’), it is more likely that the brothers named the twin peaks for Otterburn, a famous place name in Scotland.”