Red Creek Waterfalls in Dolly Sods

Sunday morning, we woke up and headed to Yokum's for breakfast, which was really good.  Then we headed to Dolly Sods Wilderness in Monongahela National Forest.  Parking at the end of Laneville Road, we started off on Red Creek Trail (#514).  There were a lot of cars at the parking lot, but these were backpackers on the way out.  The trail followed the creek closely for the first mile and a half.

There were some nice cascades along the creek.

The trail climbed up at points but never strayed far from the creek and we passed several groups of backpackers leaving the wilderness.

In about 2 miles, the trail passed Stairstep Falls.

We scrambled down before the crossing to the base of the waterfall.

It's only about 10 feet high, but very scenic in high water.

Continuing on the trail, we crossed another tributary in about a half mile.  Curtain Falls was just below the crossing, but it was a steep scramble down to the base.

There was an interesting "curtain" of moss hanging down next to the waterfall.

It was a very scenic area and we had lunch down here.

After lunch, we climbed back up and continued further on the trail.  In about another half-mile the trail came to a crossing of Red Creek, which was too high to safely cross with the dog.  Another path continued upstream without crossing, so we took this.  Shortly, we came to a small but really scenic river-wide drop on Red Creek.

More of a cascade than a waterfall, it was really nice in high water.

Sandy and Alex took a break here and I climbed to the top.

The path continued to Fisher Spring Run, but crossing would have been difficult so I turned back.  The hike back along Red Creek was very nice.

The parking lot was mostly empty by the time we got back.

From here, we headed back to Seneca Rocks and had dinner back at Yokum's.  Then we drove to Spruce Knob for a short hike to the highest point in West Virginia.  The Whispering Spruce Trail, named for the red spruce on the mountain, made an easy half-mile loop around the summit.

There's a nice stone observation tower at the summit.

We climbed to the top for some nice views from the ceiling of West Virginia.

The loop trail continued on and there were several more nice view spots.

Looking down, we could see the valleys between the ridges of the Allegheny Mountains.

The views east were a little better with the sun behind us.

We finished the loop back up at the parking lot and took off.

On the drive down the mountain, we made a quick stop at East Overlook.

Then we drove the rest of the way down the mountain and returned to camp.  It was chilly again, so we made a big fire to stay warm.