Looking for trail review contributors
Posted by Chris | Filed under Updates/News
Virginia Hiker is looking for people to contribute hiking trail reviews for the website. If you are hiking the trails through Virginia and would like to share your experiences on them and your pictures, we’d love to hear from you!
In return for writing reviews of hiking trails in Virginia, we will be happy to reward you for your time and energy.
If you are interested in writing hiking trail reviews, please leave a comment here on the website with your valid email address and we will follow up with you.
Thanks for continuing to read and support Virginia Hiker!
Dismal Falls Trail in Giles County – Bland, VA
Posted by Chris | Filed under Appalachian Trail, Roanoke/New River Valley, Southwest Virginia, Trail Information
The Dismal Creek area is located in the Jefferson National Forest in the Pembroke/Blank, VA area. The best time to view the falls is winter to early summer. Peaceful, pretty, and easily accessed is the 15 ft. Dismal Falls.
Dismal Falls
Description: A short, easy hike along the Appalachian Trail that takes you to a small waterfall nestled between Brushy and Flat Top mountain. The hike in is nothing special except for the fact that you follow one of the new sections of the AT. (more…)
Bald Knob Summit Trail at Mountain Lake Resort – Pembroke, VA
Posted by Chris | Filed under Roanoke/New River Valley, Southwest Virginia, Trail Information
The Bald Knob road and Bald Knob Trail lead to a thrilling overlook of the surrounding valleys and lake. With this destination, you have two approaches to get to the top of Bald Knob – the road and the hiking trail. The road provides a gradual climb approximately 0.7 miles long while the trail is steep and rocky providing a more challenging hike.
Directions: Starting from Blacksburg, VA drive west on 460W towards Giles County for about 7 miles. Turn right onto Mt. Lake Rd. and follow it to the top to the Mt. Lake Hotel. Year-round parking for hikers is now available at the new Trail Access parking lot, 9/10ths of a mile past the Mountain Lake Hotel entrance on your right. There you will find a kiosk with a trail map and other information.
Bald Knob Trail Sign
Trail Distance: ~2 miles round trip
Fees: $3.00 per vehicle for day use/$20.00 for a yearly Trail Access pass
A trail map and trail details can be found on the Mountain Lake Conservancy website. Besides the Bald Knob trail, there are also many others in the Mountain Lake area that you can check out.
Bald Knob in Winter (Picture from Mountain Lake Conservancy)
Cascade Falls in the Jefferson National forest – Pemrboke, VA
Posted by Chris | Filed under Roanoke/New River Valley, Southwest Virginia, Trail Information
While living in Southwest Virginia for 4 years, one of my favorite hikes was the short trip the Cascade Falls in Pembroke, outside of Blacksburg, VA. The park is just a short drive from Radford, Christiansburg, and Blacksburg. The hike, at a length of 4 miles round trip is fairly easy going but can get steep in parts, and the view of the Fall’s is good at any time of the year. Here are the full details on the trip.
Location: Pembroke, VA – Jefferson National Forest/Cascades Recreation Area (more…)
White Rock Falls Trail in Charlottesville on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Posted by Chris | Filed under Blue Ridge Parkway
The folks at Backpacker Magazine have a new trail posted to their website that I wanted to share with everyone. The map, GPS coordinates, and directions are for the White Rock Falls trail in Charlottesville, VA along the Blue Ridge Parkway
.
“For solitude on the northern stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, skip the hordes at Humpback Rocks and drive southwest to MP 18.5. After parking, cross the parkway and look for the White Rock Falls trail marker. Follow the yellow-blazed trail as it unfurls beside lichen-covered rocks and gurgling White Rock Creek. The trail crosses the creek after 1.4 miles, where you’ll find boulder-lined pools ready-made for wading.
To finish the loop, rock-hop across the creek to switchbacks that travel close to the falls, tempering the scenic pay-off with a steep, 400-foot climb. An easy-to-miss side trail before the last switchback leads to hidden, but stellar views of the 35-foot falls. Once at the top, snap a photo of Priest Mountain then continue over rippling brooks and small wooden bridges. At the parkway, follow the trail across the road to Slacks Overlook, visible to your left. From the overlook, walk right to pick up the blue-blazed Slacks Overlook Trail, a narrow multi-use trail shared with mountain bikers. Turn right at White Rock Gap Trail (a left leads to Sherando Lake Campground) and continue for a half-mile back to your car.
-Mapped by Amy C. Balfour”
To view the full details of the trip, the trail, the submitted pictures, and the coordinates, you can head to the Backpacker.com website – White Rock Falls Trail
Delaplane Strawberry Festival Recap
Posted by Chris | Filed under State Parks
This past weekend Courtney and I headed down to Sky Meadows State Park for the Delaplane Strawberry Festival. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day out and a perfect day to eat some strawberries!
The festival featured the National Strawberry Eating Contest, lots of food vendors, all sorts of craft vendors and tents set up with goods for sale, games for kids, and more. Below are some pictures and a short (~15 second) video of the bagpipe band from Winchester that was there.
Delaplane Strawberry Festival this weekend!
Posted by Chris | Filed under State Parks
Just a quick note – I’ll be heading to the Delaplane Strawberry Festival this weekend. The festival is taking place at the Sky Meadows State Park .
With things on the agenda like children’s games, live entertainment, hayrides, crafts, puppet shows and raffles, you don’t want to miss out. Oh, and I better not forget the National Strawberry Eating Championship offering an amatuer and professional round. View the full list of activities on their website.
Hopefully we’ll come home with some good pictures, videos, and maybe a story or two. The weather for the weekend looks good during the days so it should be a great time.
It’s a bit pricey in my opinion to get in – $20 per car for a one day pass (it runs Saturday and Sunday) – so it better be worth it and not rain! Get the full low down on the festival at the Delaplane Strawberry Festival website!
Virginia State Park Locations
Posted by Chris | Filed under Western Virginia
If you’re looking for a listing of all the state parks in Virginia, then look no further. Below is a list of all the Virginia State Parks and links to their individual pages within the Virginia State Parks website.
Bear Creek Lake (BC)
Belle Isle (BI)
Breaks Interstate (BR)
Caledon Natural Area (CA)
Chippokes Plantation (CP)
Claytor Lake (CL)
Douthat (DO)
False Cape (FC)
Fairy Stone (FS)
First Landing (FL)
Grayson Highlands (GH)
High Bridge Trail (HB)
Holliday Lake (HL)
Hungry Mother (HM)
James River (JR)
Kiptopeke (KP)
Lake Anna (LA)
Leesylvania (LE)
Mason Neck (MN)
Natural Tunnel (NT)
New River Trail (NR)
Occoneechee (OC)
Pocahontas (PO)
Sailor’s Creek Battlefield Historic (SC)
Shenandoah River Raymond R. “Andy” Guest Jr. (SH)
Shot Tower (ST)
Sky Meadows (SK)
Smith Mountain Lake (SM)
Southwest Virginia Museum Historical (SW)
Staunton River (SR)
Staunton River Battlefield (SB)
Tabb Monument
Twin Lakes (TL)
Westmoreland (WE)
Wilderness Road (WR)
York River (YR)
Enjoy all the beautiful areas that Virginia has to offer!
Virginia Hikes Planned for This Spring
Posted by Chris | Filed under Updates/News
With the spring quickly approaching, I have a few different hikes that I want to get to within the next few months in the Northern Virginia area.
1. Bull Run Mountain Conservancy area
2. Raven Rocks
3. Buzzard Hill
4. Sky Meadows
Some of these have been posted about here on Virginia Hiker, but I have yet to get out on them and hopefully that will happen before May!
Have you been to any of these trails? Are they as good as they sound?
Virginia Hiking Guide Books – 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles
Posted by Chris | Filed under Trail Information
There are always more and more hiking guides and books coming out about different trails, parks, and regions. The state of Virginia is no different. One series of books that spans places all across the United States is the 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles set published by Menasha Ridge Press.
A couple of their books will overlaps states depending on the area that it features. For Virginia hikes, the best two to check out would be 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Richmond and 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington D.C..
I’ll be featuring some more hiking trail guide books for Virginia trails soon, but I wanted to put out this set now. Check them out and let us know what you think!
