Wildlife crossings are a common sight along Skyline Drive. We arrived at the visitor center and got ready for a short hike to warm up our legs. As we were getting ready, I walked behind the visitor center to enjoy a wonderful view of the valley beyond in the morning light.
Then we got started hiking across the street on Fox Hollow Trail. Initially, the trail passes through an open meadow with Queen Anne’s Lace and Bee Balm blooming.
Then, the trail headed into the woods and down into Fox Hollow.
We made a quick stop at the old cemetery, with graves of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War.
Then, we finished up the short loop back at the visitor center.
We stopped inside briefly and spoke with a couple rangers. After the disappointing waterfall yesterday, we inquired about Lands Run Falls. The rangers suggested that Little Devil Stairs would be more bang for the buck, so we skipped Lands Run Falls and headed towards the parking area for the longer hike. Sandy and I were a little behind the rest of the group driving south on Skyline Drive, when we had to stop suddenly for a bear crossing!
A juvenile black bear darted across the road and was poking around in the woods. I tried to get a picture of him, but he was far enough back in the woods that I couldn’t get a good shot. Then we continued on to the parking lot of Little Devil Stairs near mile post 19 to tell everyone why were late. After getting ready, we started off hiking down Keyser Run Fire Road, where we saw some beautiful wildflowers blooming along the trail and several Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies on the flowers.
At the intersection with Little Devil Stairs Trail, we continued straight on the fire road. In about 2 miles, we came to the Bolen cemetery, a much larger graveyard than the one we had seen previously.
We spent a few minutes browsing the cemetery, taking pictures and checking out the gravestones.
The young ages of many of the deceased were a reminder of how harsh life was in the mountains 100 years ago.
When we finished, we continued on the fire road to the end at a parking area, just outside the park, and got on Little Devil Stairs Trail. Almost immediately, the trail crossed a creek and we stopped here to eat lunch. While eating, we checked out some of the aquatic life that lived in this area. There were crawfish hiding in rocks and a surprising number of fish living in a pool below a small cascade.
Despite being so small, the pool hosted a surprising amount of life. After lunch, we continued on the trail as it ran parallel to Keyser Run heading upstream. The trail was gradual at first, but got more strenuous as we entered the Little Devil Stairs canyon.
The small creek flowed through a gorge with high cliff faces on either side.
Hiking through the gorge required climbing stairs, rock-hopping back and forth across the creek, and a few areas of rock scrambling.
Despite the challenge, the gorge was beautiful, and made for a very enjoyable hike alongside the steep cliffs and cascading creek.
Near the top was a small waterfall.
The twelve-foot waterfall on Little Devil Stairs wasn’t high, though it had much better flow than Overall Run Falls we had seen yesterday. Once at the top, the trail leveled off as it ended back at Keyser Run Fire Road.
A family who were just behind us had been attacked by yellow jackets. Fortunately, Sandy had some hydrocortisone cream in her bag to share with these people to help alleviate their stings. Back at the fire road, we turned right and hiked back to the parking area. We then headed back to camp, but it was still a little early, so Sandy and I headed to Skyline Drive to check out some of the overlooks. We went north and stopped at Rattlesnake Point and Little Devil Stairs overlooks.
From the latter, we could see the gorge that we had hiked through earlier in the day.
There was an old dead tree right at the overlook that looked quite ominous against the storm clouds on the horizon.
We then stopped at Mount Marshall Overlook and Gimlet Ridge Overlook, then started heading back.
Next, we stopped at Little Hogback and Hogback Overlooks, where clouds were rolling in over the mountains.
Back at camp, we ate dinner and then headed south on Skyline Drive. We made a quick stop at the tunnel parking for some pictures of Marys Rock Tunnel and then parked at Little Stony Man Parking.
From the parking lot, we hiked to the Appalachian Trail and turned left to go southbound. At the next intersection, we turned right to hike just a short ways on Passamaquoddy Trail to the Little Stony Man View Point.
Although there were some clouds in the sky, the late evening sunlight was beautiful.
Looking north, we could see Skyline Drive snaking along the ridgeline through the park.
After thirty minutes or so here, we backtracked to the last intersection and followed the AT as it switchbacked up to the top of Little Stony Man for even more phenomenal views.
Our plan was to watch the sunset from here, but clouds on the horizon prevented us from seeing the sunset.
However, before it went completely down, there were great views as the sun dipped behind the clouds before dropping below the horizon. A small pool of water below some rocks here created a beautiful reflection of the evening sky.
Once the sun was no longer visible, we hiked back down to the cars before it got completely dark. We drove back to camp and had a nice campfire, drinking tequila and beer and eating s’mores, before heading to bed.
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