Saturday was unbelievably gorgeous, and we were lucky enough to be able to spend part of it at Dolly Sods–even if there were, like, a zillion people there. (But not as many people as we at Coopers Rock on Sunday.)

I hope you had just as much beauty in your weekend.

This was less of a hike and more of a wander, but it was gorgeous and fascinating.

After visiting Grandview, we stopped at the bridge area on our way home.

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Endless Wall (Diamond Point)
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation: 1781 – 1913

We found the oddest mushroom. I have no idea what it was, but it was most definitely green.

Saturday we visited one of the southern portions of New River Gorge: Grandview.

This is not a wilderness hike, although parts are rocky and along a cliff.

But it truly is a grand view, and well worth the visit.

Location: New River Gorge: Grandview
Trails: Grandview Rim & Castle Rock Trails
Distance: 4.1 miles
Elevation: 2360 – 2587

Stairs, for klutzes like me to get to the top!

Oh! Look! A sign for me to disregard!

Castle Rock Trail

We took advantage of our location and took a short hike at Dolly Sods Wilderness. It was the opposite side of the area than we’d hiked last time, and it was much much busier than our last visit (as in, last time we saw one person, and he was on the road, not the trail).

One reason there were so many people is because there were fields and fields and fields of ripe wild blueberries. Amazing amounts of wild blueberries.

An added bonus to a beautiful hike.

Location: Dolly Sods Wilderness
Trails: Rocky Ridge, Blackbird Knob, Breathed Mountain Trails
Distance: 3.4 miles
Elevation: 3908 – 4175 feet

While waiting for people to show up for our hike at Canaan Valley State Park, we decided to check out the Canaan Wildlife Refuge.

I immediately decided that we had to take the small people on a hike there. The trail was flat, relatively straight, relatively even, went through woods and fields and several different kinds of plant life, and there was a huge field full of wild blueberries.

It. Was. Awesome.

Location: Canaan Wildlife Refuge
Trail: Beall Loop (partial)
Distance: 1.1 mile
Elevation: 3217-3307 feet

The forecast was walling for possible thunderstorms, and we were rained upon during the drive down, but in Fayetteville the weather was beautiful, and we had two lovely hikes (although the second was cut short, and a few drops of rain did fall on us as we were hiking back from the Diamond Point Overlook).

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Long Point, Butcher Branch, Fayette Trail (loop); Endless Wall (half)
Distance: 4.2 mile; 2.3 mile
Elevation: 832 feet; 281 feet

Our first hike was out to Long Point, and this is the view when you get there.

This is, for obvious reasons, a popular trail, and it’s also relatively easy to hike. Mostly flat and wide, with only a few rocky sections.

After discussion and referring the maps, we took the Butcher Branch trail out to the Fayette Trail, making a small loop off the Long Point trail, giving us a slightly longer hike, and letting us see a little more of the area.

Then we drove to the other side of the river, and did half the Endless Wall trail. We decided upon half because the only way to make a loop is to walk back to the starting point along the road, and I didn’t particularly want to do that, so we turned around at Diamond Point and came back. I definitely want to make the full hike on another visit.

All in all a gorgeous day.

We again made the trip to Seneca Rocks to hike to the top in memory of my cousin Ben on his birthday.

Once again, we did the hike straight up to the top with no breaks. That’s 1.8 miles, 900 feet, in just under 40 minutes.

We were very lucky that it didn’t rain on us–the forecast was calling for thunderstorms, but other than a few sprinkles (and a lot of sweat) we made it back to the car, dry.

Location: Seneca Rocks (part of the Monongahela National Forest)
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation: 991 feet

This is taken from up on the rocks, above the observation deck. The Order muppet did not join me.

The view along the ridge of the rock.

Just above the observation deck, and as high as the Order Muppet wanted to climb.

An utterly gorgeous stream along the trail.

You can see from this picture, that it was a cloudy, overcast day. But that did make it cooler, and nicer to hike.

For those unfamiliar with Seneca Rocks, the hike takes you up to the left side of the rocks. The observation desk is approximately where the tree-line ends.

Saturday was gorgeous, so we went to New River Gorge. We’ve gone to Bridge Day in previous years, but hadn’t spent any time hiking the gorge, and so didn’t realize just how many miles of trails there were.

We are going back again, hopefully many times.

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Kaymoor Miners Trail, Arrowhead Trail (Clovis)
Distance: 4.0 miles
Elevation: 1228 feet

The top part of this trail is steep and rocky, but very beautiful. The recent rains meant the creeks and streams were full and since we were going down the side of the mountain, there were plenty of waterfalls both large and small.

Because the trees are just starting to leaf out, you can still see the river and down into the gorge.

The lower part of the trail is all steps.

More than 800 steps.

But at the bottom, were the remains of the processing plant, coke ovens, and town, which were fascinating.

GPS Map

Elevation Chart:

(the place where it flattens out is where we took the Clovis Arrowhead trail, so we could stretch our legs)
How it came out on FitBit:

Because the two state parks we visited didn’t have much hiking, after walking the boardwalk we decided to take a short hike on one of the close trails.

We got lucky in that it was the prefect hike for late in the day when we only had a little time.

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trails: Cowpasture Trail to Thomas Reserve Trail
Distance: 2.2 miles

(Pictures are mapped on Flickr; the mileage link about is a GPS map of the entire hike. If you want specific coordinates for a picture–email me.)

Since the day was lovely, and Beartown and Droop Mountain were very short visits, we stopped at Cranberry Glades.

Location: Cranberry Glades Boardwalk
Distance: 0.6 miles

Last Saturday (because this Saturday was rainy) we went to Harpers Ferry to try and catch some of the last leaf change in the state.

We’d considering walking on that part of the Appalachian Trail, but instead ended up taking the Maryland Heights Trail which had a gorgeous overview of the Shenandoah River, Potomac River, and Harpers Ferry.

There were a TON of people all over the place, including at least two families attempting to take strollers up the Maryland Heights Trail. (This was a terrible idea.)

See that rockline? That’s where we hiked to, and where the above pictures were taken.

Gorgeous day.

Our whole walk was about 6.5 miles, and our elevation gain was 1579 feet. And the Maryland Heights Trail was quite steep in places.

While we were staying with Mechanicky Gal, we went to Cabrillo National Monument to visit the tide pools. We also got to go into the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. Most of the rooms were closed off to the public, so you could look in and see what it would have looked like when it was in use.

The tide pools were gorgeous, and I loved walking along them.

Oh, well yes, there were a lot of rocks. So I took lots of pictures of rocks. Because I like rocks.

This is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse

You could walk up to almost the top of the tower, but you couldn’t go outside, or climb the ladder to the light.

I took this picture to remind me to look up when and why lighthouses would use different colored lights.

Short answer (according to the internet): it depended upon the light house. The rate of rotation (sometimes in combination with colors) could designate a specific lighthouse. The color could designate the location of the lighthouse in relation to the bay.

Also: This guy again.

Since we were only a few hours away (and in California) we made a point to visit Joshua Tree National Park.

Since I always buy books of the places we visit, I decided this time to purchase the books BEFORE we left. One of the books I got was Joshua Tree: The Complete Guide. This was completely helpful, since it divided the trails into types, as well as distance and time.

Also helpful was the Joshua Tree National Park (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map).

We combined the two, to give us an idea of what we’d be able to manage in a day, and plan the drive to see as much of the area as we possibly could.

We walked/hiked the following trails:
Cholla Cactus Garden
Arch Rock Nature Trail
Barker Dam Trail
Hidden Valley Trail
Cap Rock
Black Rock Trail

We drove up to Keys View

We entered the park from the south, Cottonwood Springs entrance. All of the Cottonwood Springs trails are closed, because multiple floods have exposed toxic mine tailings, so no hiking. This took us through the Colorado Sonoran dessert, which was full of Cholla cactus, Creosote bushes, Ocotillo trees, and Smoke trees.

But what I liked best were the rock formations.

We drove north, and move into the Mojave desert, which really did look quite different from the Sonoran.

Joshua Tree and the desert were interesting places to visit, but I would definitely not want to live there.