Blue Suck Falls

Saturday, we took Alex to West Virginia for a long weekend of camping to make up for leaving him for a week.  Leaving very early, we headed north into Virginia to Douthat State Park.  After paying admission, we parked at the Blue Suck Falls Trailhead near the lake.  There were a lot of wildflowers right off the bat.

Along Blue Suck Run, there were a lot of fringed polygala flowering.

In just over a mile, the trail crossed the creek at the base of Blue Suck Falls.

Despite the name, I thought it was a nice waterfall... didn't suck at all.

I climbed up a path for a better view of the upper drops.

Going further up, the creek flattened out and I headed back down.  From here, the trail got pretty steep heading up via switchbacks.

I spotted a beautiful dwarf crested iris along the trail.

There was a lot of mountain Andromeda as well.  

There were a couple nice views from the trail in the switchbacks.

As the trail leveled off a bit, we passed Lookout Rock with nice views looking down into the park.

Higher up, different wildflowers were blooming.  I think these are some type of milkvetch.

A lot of star chickweed was blooming.

And there were a few blue violets as well.

At the end of Blue Suck Trail, we turned onto Tuscarora Overlook Trail.  A short spur led out to the overlook with great views over the park.

There was a historical CCC cabin here.  We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the view.

After lunch, we continued on to Stony Run Trail and turned left to head down.  It was a lot of switchbacks, but it was all downhill.  At the last switchback, we got off the trail at Stony Run Falls.

It's a small waterfall and a lot of downfall, but looked pretty nice in high water.

Continuing on the trail, it leveled off a bit following Stony Run downstream.  At Locust Gap Trail, we turned left.

This trail terminated back at Blue Suck Falls Trail and we started making our way back.

Near the parking area, a lot of eastern redbud were flowering.

I swung by the dam on Douthat Lake for a couple pictures.  It's not a real waterfall, but still very scenic.

Then we finished up our hike.

From here, we drove north and stopped for dinner at Hull's Hideaway Restaurant in Monterey.  Then we continued into West Virginia to Seneca Rocks.  After checking in at Seneca Shadows, we set up camp and made a fire before going to bed.