Wilson Creek Hike

With the sweltering heat in Raleigh, we decided to head north for the weekend and try to stay cool in the highlands of Virginia.  We left Friday after work and headed to Grayson Highlands State Park.  It rained a bit on the way up, but was dry by the time we arrived.  After setting up our tent, we took Alex for a hike while we waited for Justine and Kristen to show up.  We started hiking down Seed Orchard Road along a wide old road.  In under a mile, we went right at a fork to get on Wilson Creek Trail and head down to the creek.  Where the trail met up with the creek, we continued upstream a short ways to a small waterfall.

The water level was too high to get across, but I think there would be a better view from the other side.  Then we got back on the main trail and followed the creek downstream.  In a short ways, we came to the main Waterfall on Wilson Creek.

There are several nice drops along the creek, but the state park mentions a 25-foot waterfall on the creek and I'm pretty sure that this is the one they're referring to.  In high water, it was really impressive.  A little further down was a nice cascading section.

And a little past that was another scenic drop.

 I think all of these would have looked better from the other side, but it was getting late and crossing would have been tough in the high water.  We finished up the loop with a steep climb back up to the road and headed back to camp.  There were some flame azaleas blooming around the campground.

When we got back to our campsite, no one else had yet arrived.

Justine and Kristen ended up getting stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until well after dark.  We were all really tired by this point and went to bed early.