Crabtree Falls
Posted by Chris | Filed under Blue Ridge Parkway, State Parks, Trail Information
Description: One of the South’s best waterfall walks also has barrier free access.
Total Distance: 6.0 mile round trip; the upper falls make a nice turnaround point for a 3.4 mile hike from the bottom trailhead or a 2.6 mile hike from the upper trailhead.
Location/Directions: Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 27.2
Difficulty: Strenuous from the bottom of the falls, moderate from the top
Elevation Gain: 1,500 feet for the entire falls trail from the bottom; 1,000 feet to falls from the bottom; 500 feet to falls from the top
Maps: USGS Montebello and Massies Mill; Appalachian Trail Conference, Pedlar Ranger District, George Washington National Forest.
Finding the Trail: Exit the Parkway at Milepost 27.2 and descend east on VA 56 for 6.6 miles to the lower trailhead on the right side of the road. The lot was expanded in 2002, and a new rest room facility has been constructed. The fall’s upper trailhead is on VA 826, an unpaved road suitable for use in good weather by higher clearance vehicles. To reach that trailhead, go east on VA 56 from the Blue Ridge Parkway; in about 3.8 miles turn right on VA 826. The upper trailhead is on the left in just under 4 miles.
The Hike: The Crabtree Falls isn’t the last cataract you’ll encounter with that name while driving south on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This Virginia hike is in the George Washington National Forest. The second is actually a Blue Ridge Parkway trail, a strenuous 2.5 mile hike in North Carolina, at Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 339.5.
Various publications describe Crabtree Falls as “the highest in Eastern America,” the “highest in Virginia,” and the “highest in the Virginia Blue Ridge.” Which of those claims to believe probably depends on a list of qualified terms and arguable assumptions. This path follows Crabtree Creek’s 1,800 feet descent to the Tye River. Along the way, five major waterfalls create a truly spectacular cascade.
The trail area includes in renovations as of 2002 including a seventy car parking area, new barrier-free rest rooms, and an extensively reworked approach that provides barrier-free access to the first overlook on the falls. The trail’s improvements are largely designed to keep hikers away from the cascades, which have claimed more than twenty lives.
Developed observation areas overlook the falls at four places along the trail, the first just above the parking lot on the new trail. There’s a wood deck overlook at 0.7 mile, and at 0.8 mile you can use a small vace to rejoin the trail above. An overlook at 1.4 miles looks up at the upper falls. The last overlook, at about 1.7 miles, surveys the Tye River Valley from above the upper falls. A return from that point makes a nice 3.4 mile hike.
