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“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

This is a quintessential Parkway leg-stretcher trail. Great views of Wigwam Falls combine with an interesting exhibit about the logging railroads that carried of the region’s virgin timber.

Total Distance: 0.1-0.2 mile

Location/Directions: Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 34.4

Difficulty:

Easy

Maps:

No Parkway map available; USGS Montebello

Finding the Trailhead:

Start on the right side of the overlook, by the interpretive sign.

The Hike: Blue Ridge Parkway interpretive trails give an amazing sense of how people affected the mountain environment. If you open yourself to the insights, you’ll start noticing the remains of old cabin sites and stone walls where you’d best expect them. This trail will change the way you look at trails wherever you hike in the eastern United States.

This trail explores a section by of railroad reconstructed on the actual grade used by the Irish Creek Railway to transport more than 100 million board feet of lumber. The railway was built in 1919 and 1920 and was 50 miles long.

Total Distance: 0.5 miles

Location/Directions:

Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 5.8

Difficulty: Easy (wheelchair accessible)

Elevation Gain:

Negligible

Maps:

Parkway handout map, available at visitor center; USGC Sherando

Finding the Trail:

Park at the visitor center and take the paved sidewalk south (left when facing the building.

The Hike: This nice and easy hike is highlighted by the seasonal programs and the costumed interpreters which give great insight into the lives of the Appalachian mountaineers. The 1890s farm found on the Mountain Farm Trail is not the original but was recreated in 1950 with building structures from the time period. The authentic setting is explored through the easy trail.

Pick up a copy of the trails interpretive map at the visitor center and take the paved sidewalk that becomes a gravel lane. On the left, you first reach a cabin and chicken house and then a “gear loft” where the family stored their supplies and equipment. Past the structures, and across the paved lave, a contorted barn is surrounded by a stone walled pigpen. Next, a springhouse channels cold water through a sheltered food storage structure. Beyond that is a gate, pass through and you are in “Coiner’s deadening’,” grass covered meadows under the towering crag of Humpback Rocks. Here mountaineers cleared fields the slow way – by girdling the trees to kill them and planting crops between the leafless giants. You can walk beyond the gate, gradually rising to the height of land in Humpback Gap, where the trailhead parking for Humpback Rocks Trail is located on the opposite side of the Parkway. Retrace your steps, or park at Humpback Rocks trailhead and take both trails from one central spot.

If you do hike the Humpback Rocks trail, short and steep, it lifts hikers to truly aw inspiring vistas that stretch north and south along the Blue Ridge, east to the Piedmont and west into the Shenandoah Valley. It is a 1.0-mile climb on a blue-blazed trail that has a partially gravel surface and resting benches along the way because it is strenuous.