Take a hike
Virginia offers a trail for every interest

by Lee Graves
for Virginia Business
April 2007

Virginia puts on her brightest dress in spring. She sheds the heavy mantle of winter for a gown resplendent with the whites and pinks of dogwoods and laurels and the purples and yellows of spiderworts and lady’s slippers.

This profusion of color draws people far and wide to explore paths in the woods, to trudge along stony ridges and climb steep summits, all to share in the annual rite of renewal.

Fortunately, a trail exists for every seeker. From experienced hikers scrambling across the billion-year-old granite of Old Rag Mountain to children skipping along gravel paths of Limberlost Trail, everyone can find a way into Mother Nature’s garden.

For many, the spectacular views and challenging terrain of Old Rag are a magnet. “It’s rare to see so much exposed granite,” says Will Zimmerman, a hiker from Washington. He stood on a boulder atop the 3,291-foot peak in Shenandoah National Park to savor one of Virginia’s postcard views.

The granite provides one of the toughest tests among Old Dominion hikes. The Ridge Trail is part of a 7.2-mile trek from the trailhead in Madison County and takes hikers through fissures, caves, crevices and outcroppings that require a squirm here, a squat there and a good sense of balance throughout. “The seven-mile loop hike is considered a rite of passage for mid-Atlantic hikers,” says one Web site.

For some, the test takes a toll. “We get quite a few injuries up on the summit areas and rock scrambles,” says Steve Bair, backcountry, wilderness and trails manager for Shenandoah National Park. “There are times that folks are sometimes out of their element and don’t have the physical ability to do that hike.” Still, Old Rag is the park’s most popular hike, drawing 50,000 to 60,000 people a year, Bair says.

A different experience draws hikers to the other end of the state. Mount Rogers crowns the Blue Ridge, rising to 5,729 feet, the highest peak in Virginia. The summit is forested in Fraser fir, the remnant of a glacial front that retreated northward ages ago.

Named for Virginia’s first state geologist, William Barton Rogers, the mountain is but one feature of the national recreation area and neighboring Grayson Highlands State Park. Rhododendron blooms in June, apple trees and blueberry thickets come ripe with fruit in late summer and autumn, and high meadows of hardy grass and knobs of bony granite add to the unique mix.

The U.S. Forest Service lists 116 trails, spurs, loops and paths spanning 381 miles in the region, with routes ranging from the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 33-mile boulevard for bikers, to the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail, a 50-mile haven for horse-riders.

For pure hiking, though, nothing beats the Appalachian Trail. The Old Dominion hosts the longest stretch of the AT on its 2,160-mile stretch from Georgia to Maine. About 78 of those miles pass through the Mount Rogers area, and another 100 wind through Shenandoah National Park.

Between are trails offering sweeping panoramas, woodland splendors and geological wonders. In Nelson County, the AT’s steep ascent from state Route 56 west to the summit of The Priest offers a vertical test for hikers and spectacular views from nearby Spy Rock.

Another challenge lies to the east of Route 56 across the Tye River. The AT passes through Three Ridges Wilderness Area, where trillium, Dutchman’s breeches and other wildflowers adorn the trail in spring. A 13.8-mile loop that combines the AT with the Mau-Har Trail was singled out in Backpacker magazine as the toughest one-day hike in Virginia.

A pair of geological features draw legions of hikers each year. At Devil’s Marbleyard near Natural Bridge, acres of quartzite boulders the size of trucks provide a lesson in history as well as a playground for scramblers.

Humpback Rock just south of Afton Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway offers relatively easy access to a dramatic promontory. For a more woodsy experience, check out the nearby 3.1-mile Jack Albright Loop Trail developed by members of the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club.

Though Virginia’s mountains dominate the list of destinations for many hikers, plenty of trails lace through woods from the Piedmont to Tidewater. The foothills around Charlottesville provide sport in the 980-acre Ragged Mountain and 215-acre Ivy Creek natural areas. Ragged Mountain is rugged, while Ivy Creek beside the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir has friendly paths through pine stands and upland hardwoods.

The Cumberland Multi-Use Trail and the Willis River Trail around Bear Creek Lake State Park and Cumberland State Forest combine for more than 30 miles of easy to moderate hiking. The former trail, as its name implies, is designed for bikers and horseback riders as well; the latter is for foot travelers only.
At the eastern end of the state, York River and First Landing state parks are worthy destinations for day hikes. York River, just west of Williamsburg, has 25 miles of trails that constitute a classroom for the ecology of a coastal estuary.

First Landing marks where members of the Virginia Company landed before hanging their halberds at Jamestown. The trails aren’t extensive — about 19 miles on 2,800 acres — but they give glimpses of the Chesapeake Bay environment.

If you like to mix history with your hiking, consider one of the state’s Civil War battlefields. Some, such as North Anna Battlefield Park in Hanover County, tell their stories in settings of wooded serenity. That hike gets high marks from Nathan Lott in his book, “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Richmond.” “The pleasant woodland setting alone is worth the trip [or a repeat visit],” he says.

The biggest trail news in the state capital is last year’s completion of the Northbank Trail. It connects another Civil War icon, the former Tredegar Iron Works, on the James River’s north bank, with sections of the James River Park System on the south bank. The full loop serves a variety of outdoor enthusiasts, from extreme athletes grinding through gears on mountain bikes to casual ramblers watching birds on weekend treks.

Not every trail is rugged, and not every outdoorsman can hike. Places such as Limberlost Trail in Shenandoah National Park provide wheelchair access for nature lovers. A 5-foot-wide trail extends 1.3 miles into an old-growth forest of hemlocks near Skyland.

Limberlost and hundreds of other sites in the Old Dominion are part of the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. The first statewide program of its kind in the country, the trail showcases the state’s natural diversity — 400 species of birds and 250 species of fish alone —in three phases with scores of loops and hikes.

This resource provides but one entry point to Mother Nature’s wild and splendorous world, where the welcome mat is particularly inviting this time of year.