Seven Sisters in the Rain

Monday, I started making my way home.  In Virginia, I got off the highway after the Big Walker Tunnel and parked at the Seven Sisters Trailhead near Big Walker Mountain.  It was raining pretty hard at this point.  Initially, the trail was pretty flooded but there was a bridge over East Fork Stony Fork and then the trail started to climb steeply and soon I got above the flooded portions of trail.  The first part of the trail was pretty steep but then leveled off as I got up to the ridge line.

The rain tapered off for a bit though my luck didn't last long.  The trail went up and down crossing the peaks along the ridge line, including Little Walker Mountain.

After about 4 miles, it started to descend back down towards Stony Fork Campground.  Since the rain, let up for a short time, I made a loop on Stony Fork Trail.

But by the time I got back to the campground, it was raining heavily again.  I just hiked the road back to the trailhead and then made the drive home.

Bluestone Turnpike

Sunday morning, I headed into Hinton for breakfast then headed back to Bluestone State Park.  I stopped near the road to the boat ramp for a nice view of Bluestone Lake.

Then I drove past the campground to the end of the road at the trailhead for Bluestone Turnpike Trail along Bluestone National Scenic River.

The trail was surprisingly overgrown, but I saw some wildflowers along the trail.

Carolina wild roses made pretty blooms.

In about 2 miles, there was a footbridge over Little Bluestone River and a gravel road access to the river.

Continuing on, there were a few places to go out for a view of the river, but much of the trail was weedy and overgrown.

At about 8 miles, the trail passes into Pipestem Resort State Park and became River Trail.  I turned around here.

On the hike back, I saw a little red eft in the trail.

I had managed to avoid the rain, but was still pretty wet from the grass and weeds growing over the trail.

After finishing my hike, I went to Weathered Ground Brewing and had a pizza and beer for lunch.  Heading back to the park, I parked at the boat ramp thinking there may be a small waterfall here.  I followed Rhododendron Trail up to the road, but didn't find anything.  Surveyor Branch Falls was further down towards the boat ramp just above where the creek flows into the lake.

There was a path down to the base, but it was really steep and slick, so I didn't attempt to go down.

It was a fairly nice waterfall though, free-falling over a ledge into the lake.

It was too early to head back to camp, so I drove down back into New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.  First, I made a quick stop at Brooks Falls, a small but very wide waterfall on New River.

Then I continued on to the Sandstone Falls parking area a few miles further up the road.

The boardwalk trail led out to several nice views of the falls.

I went to the end of the boardwalk and out to see the falls.

It started raining while I was out here so I didn't stay long.

From here, I headed back to camp.

Glade Creek Hike

Saturday, I headed to West Virginia for the holiday weekend.  Near Beckley, I headed into New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and parked at Glade Creek Campground.  Glade Creek Trail followed its namesake upstream and in about a mile, I came to Glade Creek Falls.

It was a scenic creek-wide drop into a beautiful blue pool.  It was a little chilly to swim but I enjoyed scrambling around.

Back on the trail, I passed right over the top of the falls.

It was a little late in the season, but there were still some wildflowers blooming along the trail.

There was some Meehan's mint and a lot of skullcap in bloom.

After about 3 miles, a footbridge crossed the creek.

I got into the creek bed and went downstream a short ways to see some cool cliffs.

From here, the trail continued the rest of the way on the river right side.

In about 4.5 miles, a short spur trail led to Kates Falls on a tributary of Glade Creek.

It was really scenic, even in lower water levels.

I scrambled around on the rocks for a bit and had a snack here.

Then I headed back to the main trail.

Upstream, there were more nice cascades on Glade Creek.

The first set was just downstream of the I-64 bridge and the second was just upstream.

A young lady was attempting to swim at the upper one, but it looked pretty cold.

I went as far as the upper trailhead and then turned back.

I saw a rat snake slithering along the trail on the hike back.

From here, I took off and headed towards Hinton.  I was pretty hungry by this point so stopped for an early dinner at River City Grill and Pub.  Then I headed to Bluestone State Park to set up camp for the weekend.  With a few hours of daylight left, I went for a hike in the park, starting on the Big Pine Trail.

Near the end, I took a detour on Overlook Trail but the overlook was pretty overgrown.  The view would be better in winter.

At the end of Big Pine Trail, I got on Riverview Trail and followed a small tributary downstream.  There was a small drop over a wide ledge.

Just past this was a small waterfall that I'm calling Riverview Falls.

It's small and low-flow, but kind of interesting as it pretty much drops into the lake.

Riverview Trail continued on following the lakeshore.

I saw yellow irises and bladder sedge blooming along the trail.

The yellow irises are pretty, but very invasive.

The trail ended at the road and I took this back to camp.

Rocky Knob Hike

Sunday morning, we had a really good breakfast at the hotel and then parked at the Saddle Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a hike at Rocky Knob.  With the early morning sun in the east, we didn't bother with a picture from the overlook and started climbing up Rocky Knob on Rock Castle Gorge Trail.  We soon made it to the old AT shelter and took a short break.

Continuing on, we descended the peak via switchbacks and the trail met with Black Ridge Trail.  Some spiderwort was flowering along the trail.

There were a few spots with nice views of the gorge through the trees.

Where the two trails then split, we turned right to stay on Black Ridge Trail and cross the parkway.

The trail followed an old road and descended to a creek then started climbing back up.  There was an old chimney along here.

At the next split, we took Picnic Loop Trail around then took Black Ridge back to meet up with Rock Castle Gorge Trail.  Heading back, we took the spur to go around Rocky Knob without climbing and back to the Saddle Overlook.

The view was much better by this time.

From here, we continued a short ways southbound on the parkway to Mabry Mill.

It was really pretty with the rhododendron flowering around the mill.

After some pictures, we stopped at the restaurant for an ice cream.

Then we started making our way home.  Near Martinsville, we went south into North Carolina and parked at the Deshazo Mill access for Mayo River State Park.  Since out last visit, the park had made a small parking lot and blazed the trail to Fall Creek Falls.  It was less than 1/4 mile to the waterfall.

We decided to hike the rest of the trail since it was short.

Just another quarter mile out to where Fall Creek flows into Mayo River.

We enjoyed the view for a bit and then hiked back.

We drove most of the way home and stopped for dinner at Bright Penny in Mebane to finish out our weekend.