We did two hikes at Dolly Sods: a short evening hike around sunset and then a longer hike the next morning. Both were along the Rocky Ridge Trail, but in opposite directions.
Location: Dolly Sods
Date: 2016-05-26
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 1.8 miles
Elevation: 3940-4175 feet
Grade: 0.2%
Date: 2016-05-27
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation: 3965-4184 feet
Average Grade: 0.5%
Here is our sunset hike, and yes it WAS that gorgeous.
And here was our hike the next morning. Very different, but even more beautiful.
This wasn’t much of a hike, but it was beautiful.
Spruce Knob is the highest peak in WV, and as it’s in a rural area (what you see when you look out is forests and the occasional farm.
Location: Spruce Knob
Distance: .85 miles
Elevation: 4,827-4,859 ft
Grade: 0.2% (included two-story observation tower)
Location: Spruce Knob Lake
Distance: 1.19 miles
Elevation: 3,838-3,870 ft
We also stopped at Spruce Knob Lake.
To remember my cousin Ben, on his birthday we hike up to the top of Seneca Rocks. And because we’re doing it in memory of Ben, we go up without stopping. (Stopping is allowed on the way back down, as is resting once the summit has been reached.)
Location: Seneca Rocks
Trail: Seneca Rocks Trail
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 1393-2468 feet (11% grade)
Average Speed Hiking Up: 2.3 mph
Dolly Sods is a fascinating place with a fascinating history. Despite the high elevation, it was initially farmed, until a fire wiped everything out. Then, during WWII, it was used as a test bombing range (nearby Seneca Rocks was used to train soldiers who might be fighting in the Alps).
Then it was allowed to go wild, and was eventually designated a national wilderness area.
And yes, there are signs about possible UXO at Dolly Sods.
When you hike there, you’d never know it was ever anything except a wilderness.
It’s an amazing and beautiful place.
Location: Dolly Sods Wilderness
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 3.7 miles
Elevation: 3987-4192 feet
Since it was on the way, we stopped at Cranberry Glades on our way home.
In addition to the boardwalk, we took a short hike along Charles Creek Trail.
I now need to go back and follow the entire trail, because there were random interpretive signs about a prison there prior to and during WWII.
Saturday was gorgeous, so we made (another) trip to New River Gorge.
Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Kaymoor Miner’s, Kaymoor, Craig Branch, Butcher Branch, Long Point, Fayetteville Trails
Distance: 9.8 miles
Elevation: 1355 – 2005 feet
Our primary destination on Saturday was Harpers Ferry.
There is a lot here to do:
Hiking the WV portion of the Appalachian Trail (and visiting the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters)
Hiking the old B & O Canal
See the site of John Brown’s Raid (and all attendant historical stuff)
Wandering Harpers Ferry
Enjoying the Shenandoah and Potamic rivers
Hiking the Maryland Heights trail
Location: Harpers Ferry Historic District
Distance: 5.1 miles
Elevation: 229 – 590 feet (yes, that’s the lowest point we’ve hiked in ages)
I remain fascinated by the remains of this church.
I also took a couple pictures of the burned buildings–there is a Go-Fund-Me site for those wanting to donate to the rebuilding of the historic buildings.
Since we were at Canaan, we decided to go back to the Canaan Mountain Wilderness and hike back out Table Rock Trail, assuming correctly it would be a nice view.
If you are thinking about taking this hike, there are two things to note: 1) it takes 30 – 45 minutes to drive out the gravel Canaan Loop road if don’t have a 4-wheel drive (it’s rumored to be unpassable past the Table Rock Trail) and 2) it is muddy–even after a dry spell there were muddy patches. After a rain, it’s nigh near swampy.
Location: Canaan Wilderness
Trail: Table Rock Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles
Elevation: 3031 – 3511 feet
We hiked this twice, on two different mornings, and it was gorgeous both times.
Location: Canaan Wildlife Refuge
Trail: Beall Trails
Distance: ~2.2 miles & 1.7 miles
Elevation: 3137 – 3323 feet
After hiking up Seneca Rocks, we then went to Spruce Knob.
Spruce Knob is the highest point in WV, at 4,863 feet. As it’s so high, it’s also windy and much colder than anywhere else in the area. We saw snow flakes while we were there. (But they didn’t amount to anything.)
Location: Spruce Knob
Trails: Whispering Spruce, Huckleberry (partial)
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation: 4735 – 4887 feet
Since the weather was so nice, we took and extended weekend to hike and enjoy the landscape.
Sunday started with Seneca Rocks.
Of course we hiked to the top of the rocks. And of course we went up without stopping.
What was surprising was just how many people were there–it was quite crowded by the time we started down.
Yup. Beautiful.
On our way back from Bridge Day we went through the Cranberry Wilderness and stopped at the Falls of Hills Creek.
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It was a gorgeous day–perfect for everything but jumping (because it was very windy), apparently.
Location: Dolly Sods National Wilderness
Trail: Rohrbaugh Trail (partial)
Distance: 3.0
Elevation: 3790 – 4120 feet
As is par for the course for every visit we’ve made to Dolly Sods, it was wet and muddy, which is part of the reason we only hiked a third of the Rohrbaugh trail (the other reason was that I’m still somewhat exhausted from this never-ending cold).
The trails are nowhere near as scenic as Bear Rocks, but it was still a gorgeous hike.
