Grayson Highlands - Pinnacles & Cabin Creek

Due to some very loud snoring, I didn't sleep to well Saturday night and woke up at about 530 on Sunday morning. But I didn't want to let an early morning go to waste, so I grabbed my camera and drove to the Sugarlands Overlook towards the entrance of the park.

The sun was just starting to peek over the mountains to the east and provided some gorgeous early morning views.

As it rose over the mountains and broke through the clouds, the sky was alight was beautiful purple, orange, and pink, and the dim light illuminated the misty valleys nestled between the mountains in the distance.

So while I wasn't too thrilled about getting woken up so early, I was a bit appreciative of being given the opportunity to witness such a beautiful sunrise. I headed back to camp and most other people were starting to wake up. After we had breakfast and broke camp, we headed back to Massie Gap for one last hike in Grayson Highlands State Park. From Massie Gap, we hiked up the short, but steep Big Pinnacle Trail to its namesake peak for beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

The weather this weekend had been absolutely perfect - mild temperatures with highs in the mid 70s and mostly sunny skies. So the views were incredible.

From here, we hiked along the Twin Pinnacles Trail towards Little Pinnacle. Along the way was a patch of beautiful flame azaleas in bloom.

We really lucked out with the blooms - the rhododendron and flame azaleas were peaking, though it was still a little early for the mountain laurel. We stopped again at Little Pinnacle to enjoy the view and then continued on the trail.

Just past Little Pinnacle is a really neat tree whose roots are growing over a rock, several feet above the ground.

The visitor center is right past here and then the trail loops back around back towards Big Pinnacle, and then back down to Massie Gap. But we weren't quite ready to leave just yet - one more hike to go. We hiked down the Cabin Creek Trail to its namesake creek and followed the creek upsteam. There are several pretty little cascades and waterfalls along the creek.

We stopped and had lunch at the Lower Waterfall on Cabin Creek, a nice 25-foot triple waterfall and then made our way back up, finishing the loop.

It was about 130 when we got back to our cars and started making the drive home. Being relatively close, we actually made it home at around dinner time.