Shenandoah National Park - Summer 2020:

I set out for a solo camping and hiking trip to the Shenandoah National Park with the goal of exploring the southern third of the park via a few key hikes and a stay at the Loft Mountain Campground.

The SNP southern tip is near Charlottesville, VA and runs 105 miles to the northern terminus at Fort Royal, about 60 miles due west of Washington DC. To enter the park there is a $30 per vehicle fee that is good for one week of reentry. This fee grants access to Skyline Drive which runs the length of the park.

The objective of the trip was to explore a new park and new campground as well as complete hikes to the summits of Turk Mountain, Blackrock Summit, Furnace Mountain, and Hightop Mountain. Hightop mountain being the highest point in the southern section of the park at 3587 feet.

Day 1 was to include arriving at the park and immediately hiking the short 2.4 mile round trip to the top of Turk Mountain and back. After the hike, I would move on to my reserved campsite at Loft Mountain.

Day 2 included the longest hike, an over 7 mile out and back trip that would take me to the top of Blackrock Summit and Furnace Mountain. 

Day 3 was a planned morning hike to the summit of Hightop Mountain before heading home.

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Exiting I-64 and entering the park on Skyline Drive, I payed my $30 at the entrance station and continued on to the parking area at the Turk Mountain trail head. Skyline Drive is essentially an extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway. South of I-64 is the Blue Ridge turning into Skyline Drive as you enter the National Park. 

It was a beautiful day and the parking area only had two vehicles occupying it. One was a cool looking yellow Subaru Baja.

The Appalachian Trail runs the distance of the park and parallels Skyline Drive, crossing back and forth multiple times as it winds it's way through the mountains. The hike to Turk Mountain begins with a .2 mile hike south on the AT before turning west onto the Turk Mountain Trail. From there it is a fairly easy .9 mile hike to the summit. 

Skyline Drive runs the high ridge through the park, so many of the hikes starting from Skyline Drive do not have a large amount of elevation gain. The hike to the 2981 ft. summit of Turk Mountain included about 600 foot of gain.

I reached the summit marker after the short hike, but quickly realized I wasn't at the true summit. When you are standing at the marker but can see higher mountain around you, then you know something isn't quite right. 

Turk Mountain Summit marker (but not really)

View of trail rising from Summit marker

So up I went to find the true highest point of the mountain. Scrambling over rocks, I soon found what seemed to be the true summit.  At the top, I was rewarded with some great views!

View from Turk Mountain Summit

Returning to the "Toyota Expedition Truck" was uneventful, and I drove the 10 or so miles to Loft Mountain Campground, the southernmost campground in SNP. 

The only thing I have to determine the quality of a campground is a direct comparison to those that I am most familiar with, the camps of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Loft Mountain boasted amenities such as a grill/restaurant, a camp store, and even showers. My expectations were high. Two of those three, you won't find at any GSMNP campgrounds. 

Several things jumped out at me when initially entering the campground. First, the setting was different than what I was used to. This was a mountaintop campground, not something nestled deep in a valley. There were trees, but they were small and provided little shade from above. There was no canopy to speak of like you would find in Elkmont, Smokemont, or Cades Cove. The sites were small. Many weren't level. My initial impressions were of disappointment. I could not feel the magic.

I selected my reserved site (F167) partly because it appeared to be somewhat secluded and private as best I could tell from the online pictures and camp diagram. I always look for a bit of seclusion when possible. 

Arriving at my site, it was indeed quite private. It was a "back-in site", surrounded by a thick wall of overgrown brush, with a walk back to a clearing.  At the clearing, there was no tent pad, just a dirt spot where you know you are supposed to put a tent. The fire pit was a mess, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned out in years. The provided picnic table was in bad shape and falling apart. My disappointment grew.

One bright spot to Loft Mountain was the wildlife. I noticed three large deer grazing in a nearby empty site as I pulled in. Other encounters at F167 included squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits.

I went for an evening walk around the campground. I was hoping to see my wildlife and also wanted to check out the restaurant and showers. Although I had not been counting on it to provide any meals, I was not too surprised to find the restaurant closed with a sign stating that it would not reopen until 2021. Interesting. 

I found the campground store and the adjacent shower facilities as well. The showers were $1.75 for 5 minutes of hot water. That may seem steep for only 5 minutes of water, but to anyone that has been in camp and/or hiking for several days with no way to wash, it is a small price to pay and very worthwhile. That being said, my plan was to hold off until after my long hike on day 2 before hitting the showers.

F167 - Clearing looking back at parking spot. I must have made this walk 100 times during the 2 days

 

Unkempt Fire Pit

Lots of wildlife in the campground

Day 2 started early. I was parked at the trail head and on my way to Blackrock Summit and Furnace Mountain by 7:10. Like the previous days hike and many in the SNP, this one started out on the Appalachian Trail. You walk .5 miles south on the AT to reach Blackrock Summit and then head west toward Furnace Mountain. The early morning air was cool and delightful. There was no one else around.

The hike to Blackrock on the AT was short and enjoyable. I emerged from the forest at 3120 feet above sea level into a huge boulder field covering the summit. According to an informational sign I had seen back at the trail head, the boulders were formed in an ancient pre-historic ocean that once covered the area that is now the Appalachian mountains. Interesting.

I explored around for a few minutes and took some pictures before heading on to Furnace mountain.  From Blackrock I would travel .6 miles on the Trayfoot Mountain trail before traveling 1.7 miles on the Furnace Mountain trail before taking a spur for the last 4 tenths to the summit. At the intersection of the Trayfoot Mountain trail and the Furnace Mountain trail I found a marker showing the summit of Trayfoot Mountain to be only .2 miles up a steep and overgrown trail. 

Score! 

Bonus Summit located! 

I decided to head on to Furnace Mountain and take the short detour to the summit of Trayfoot on the way back.

The stunning boulder fields of Blackrock Summit (These are not small rocks!)

Trail through Blackrock Summit

View from Blackrock Summit

Trayfoot Summit .2 - A Bonus Summit!!!

The walk to Furnace Mountain was uneventful except that it was 1.7 miles all downhill until reaching the summit spur trail that took me to the top. This meant 1.7 miles of uphill on the way back. Remember Blackrock was at 3120 feet and the Furnace Mountain summit stands at only 2657 feet. So the trail actually dropped well below 2657 before climbing back up the summit spur trail. The summit trail was only about 4 tenths of a mile to the uninspiring top of the mountain. There were no views from the top and nothing there of note except a small clearing. The trail dropped sharply off the other side, letting you know that you were standing on the summit. 

Trail to Furnace Mountain

 Furnace Mountain summit clearing

I stayed at the summit only a short time to rest and hydrate before heading back. It was on the way back that I realized I was walking 1.7 miles of continuous elevation gain. On the way out, I hadn't even noticed the slight but continuous downhill of the trail.  It wasn't steep though, and in good time I was back at the junction with the Trayfoot Mountain trail. The trail to the summit of Trayfoot was short but this section did get steep. It was also quite overgrown, which surprised me as the Trayfoot Mountain Loop is supposedly one of the more popular hikes in the southern section of the park.

Overgrown trail to the summit of Trayfoot

At the top the summit of Trayfoot was even less impressive than that of Furnace. The trail passes right over the peak and keeps going on its' loop back to Skyline Drive. There were no views and nothing much there at all. I stopped to take a short break after the steep approach. A couple of hikers doing the loop passed by me. They were the first hikers I had seen all day. After they had walked by me continuing on the trail without pausing, I overheard the female muttering, "So I guess that was the summit?" 

Soon I picked up my gear and was ready for the final leg of my journey back to Blackrock Summit and on to the truck. But before my departure, I would meet one more individual, a giant stick bug that had attached itself to my camera. I took a photo with my phone camera before returning it to its' natural habitat. 

The unimpressive summit of Trayfoot Mountain

Returning to Blackrock summit, the area was now crowded with people who had made the short hike from Skyline Drive. I was glad I had gotten an early start and had had the place to myself that morning.

Returning to camp, I ate lunch and then headed to try out the pay showers.

My expectations of a pay shower at a primitive campground on the top of a mountain were somewhat low.  Based on my other perceptions so far of Loft Mountain Campground, I half expected some dilapidated wooden walled stall of some sort with a worn out shower head producing inadequate water pressure. 

It would be a vast understatement to simply say that my expectations were blown away. Stepping into a shower at Loft Mountain was like stepping into a shower at the Ritz Carlton. 

Unbelievable. Possibly the best part of the entire campground, and probably the best $1.75 I have spent in a long time.

An astonishingly upscale shower facility at the campground

The rest of the second day was uneventful and after dinner I was in the truck camper by 8:00 pm and falling asleep. Rain and thunder throughout the night made sleep intermittent and I pondered whether my final hike up Hightop Mountain was even going to happen. I wrestled with the decision I would have to make as to go or not if it was still raining hard in the morning.

Fortunately that decision didn't have to be made, as I awoke to only a slight drizzle. The mountain was enveloped in clouds and visibility was very low. At around 6:30 am I pulled out of Loft Mountain Campground and this time headed north on Skyline Drive into unexplored territory and the Hightop trail head. The fog was heavy and progress was slow. No one else was out. Many deer lined the roadsides grazing, including a spotted fawn who ran ahead of me on the side of the road as I approached. 

Given the conditions, I figured my photographic opportunities on this day would be limited, so when I saw a brief break in the clouds I was able to take these pictures from one of the overlooks before reaching the trail head:

As quickly as the clouds lifted, they closed again and I was at the trail head and starting the 3.4 mile round trip hike in a dense fog.

Early morning day 3 conditions

Once again the hike was on the AT.  It was 1.7 miles of mostly uphill until reaching a trail marker that was the indicator of where to leave the AT and access the summit. I was surprised that there wasn't a maintained trail to the actual summit. Only an unmaintained (and officially unmarked) trail that traveled about a hundred yards to the top of the mountain. Hightop being the highest point in the southern park should probably deserve a little more respect.

At the top there was no view given my morning conditions. On a clear day there are supposedly nice views along the trail, but I saw none of those. At the summit there were remnants of some sort of foundation that had once been there. There was nothing except these large concrete blocks to mark the apex. 

Hightop Summit

I took a short break from the hike up. Looking up into the grey skies I noticed a large spider web above me in the trees. I snapped a few pictures of it and headed back down for the final leg of my final hike of my the Shenandoah National Park trip.

My return to Skyline Drive and the "Toyota Expedition Truck" was uneventful. I proceeded north on Skyline Drive until reaching highway 33 and exited the park heading west toward Harrisonburg, VA and access to Interstate 81. 

The trip was a success in that I completed all planned hikes and even found the additional unplanned summit of Trayfoot mountain. 

GSMNP - Fall 2019

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK NOVEMBER 2019

This was a weekend trip with the intention of spending two nights in the park and visiting a couple of the waterfalls that the Smoky's has to offer. It was a weekend trip so Spencer could join me and not miss (much) school. The GSMNP has over 2000 miles of rivers and streams and accumulates over 85 inches of rain each year. The park has over 100 waterfalls within its boundaries. Our plan was to reach just two of them.

Saturday November 2:

Our plan was to spend two nights at Smokemont Campground with a hike of the Laurel Falls trail on Sunday morning and then trying to make it down to Forney Creek Cascades on Sunday afternoon. We would return home on Monday. Our plan went off the rails from the early stages. There would be no Smoky Mountain Magic on the Saturday of our arrival.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited National Park in the country with over 11 million visitors each year. I'm pretty sure the entire 11 million chose the same weekend to visit that we did.

Entering the Smoky's from Cherokee

Stop and Go for miles, 441 North towards Gatlinburg

Reserved campsites are very limited at Smokemont this time of year with most sites being first come, first served.  I knew we were in trouble when we encountered the stop and go traffic just inside the park. Sure enough, arriving at Smokemont, we were told the campground was already full for Saturday night, and in fact there was nothing available in the entire park. We were able to grab a site at Smokemont for Sunday night however, so all was not yet lost. Alone I could have found a place to stealth camp in the truck, but with two of us I figured I'd better play it safe, so we were forced to (begrudgingly) return to civilization for the night. 

Back into traffic we went, resigned to spending the night in a dull hotel. Two hours later we made it over the mountain and into Pigeon Forge. The crowds were not confined only to the park and after several tries, we finally found a hotel with a vacancy. It was a nice hotel and I paid way more than the $20 the campsite would have cost, but oh well, there was little choice given the circumstance.

A Pigeon Forge Best Western. Our "Campsite" for Saturday night.

Sunday November 3:

On Sunday morning, braving temperatures in the 20's, we checked out of the hotel early and were at the trail head not much after 0700. Arriving at the parking area, there was only one other vehicle there. A couple of hours later when we would emerge from our hike, the parking lot would be full and there would be vehicles lining the roadside as far as one could see in both directions.

Ready to begin his hiking career

This would be Spencer's first real hike, albeit a short one. It was 1.3 miles one way to the falls and he crushed it. The hike was uneventful with some nice views along the way. We had the falls to ourselves for a few minutes before others started showing up. We took a few pictures and then headed back. We still had to make it up to Clingman's Dome, the start of our second hike of the day.

Fall colors on the mountain. Views from the along the trail to Laurel Falls

Laurel Falls

Laurel falls in Black and White

Headed back

With Laurel Falls behind us, we were approaching the Dome parking area by 10:00 and it was already filled. We got lucky (extremely lucky) as someone was backing out just as we reached the front of the parking lot. We grabbed the spot and readied our gear for the second and more serious hike of the day. We would each carry light day packs with water and snacks as well as a hiking pole each.

Clingman's Dome is the highest point in Tennessee and the second highest point east of the Mississippi River (Mt. Mitchell, NC). This hike would take us from this pinnacle down into a deep ravine in search of the Forney Creek Cascades, 3.1 miles away. All downhill to the Cascades, all uphill on the way back.

In my research for this hike, it had been noted that this area was some of the most rugged in the park. It turned out to live up to its reputation and our progress was quite slow.
We were the only people down there. Despite the throngs of people in the park on this weekend, no one else was on our trail. I took a strange sense of pride in that.
We made it down into the ravine a little over two miles and stopped to rest by a smaller cascade. We decided at this point to turn back just short of campsite #68 and failing to reach our intended destination of the Forney Creek Cascade. Several factors played into this decision. Firstly our pace was slow. It was no fault of mine or Spencer's but the trail was just too rough to move quickly. I knew it was still at least a mile further down the trail. I kept an eye on the time. With a later start to this hike and darkness coming early this time of year, I didn't want to get too far down there with an 11 year old in tow. I knew we still had a long walk over rugged terrain and all uphill to get back home.

Spencer chewed up some rugged trail beneath Clingman's Dome.

Rough Terrain

Did I mention this was a rugged area?

We made it back up the trail with rest breaks becoming more and more common as little legs grew tired. Eventually we made it. We stepped from the canopy of the trail out into the bright sunshine of the mountain top. The Dome parking lot was a mass of people and vehicles that was hard to believe.
It looked like there were a thousand people milling around in that parking lot.
We walked the short distance to our truck, took off our shoes and sat on the tailgate eating snacks and drinking water while the endless stream of vehicles crawled by us.
"Never again on a weekend" I remember saying to Spencer as we watched them inch by.

We had walked over 4 miles of rugged and steep terrain, and once we had recovered sufficiently we decided it was time to head for Smokemont. The traffic was obviously not going to let up. We had no problem backing out as someone was eager to let us out to grab our exceptionally good parking spot.

The lot is a one way loop that flows back into the two-lane Clingman's Dome Road which takes you seven miles back to 441. Given this layout,we had to continue around the loop just to get headed back out. As we crawled along the line of cars parked on each side of the road just kept stretching on and on. The traffic coming toward stretched on and on at a standstill. I was thinking that these people have nowhere to go. Even if they never stop and get out of their vehicle they are looking at a 2 to 3 hour commitment just to drive through the parking lot and get back out. Many of them probably had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
We were over a mile from the parking lot when we finally reached the end of the string of parked cars.
"Never again on a weekend" Spencer reaffirmed to me as we sat in this quagmire.
 It took over an hour to travel the seven miles back to 441 and then things got somewhat better as we turned and headed south toward the campground.

Traffic on the Dome Road. Cars parked over a mile from the lot, and more trying to pour in.

My beautiful refuge of solitude overrun by the masses

Back at Smokemont, we set up our tent and grilled some burgers over the open campfire. As we relaxed, Spencer made the comment that he had never felt such a great sense of accomplishment as he did when we had finally emerged from the trail back into that sea of humanity at the Dome parking lot.
We had accomplished something. He had accomplished something. Something none of those other people all just standing around in a parking lot had accomplished. He had covered four tough miles of rugged terrain (and close to seven miles total if you count the morning hike). He had come from deep down in a ravine and summited the 2nd highest peak east of Black Hills, South Dakota!
He was proud of himself. And I was proud of him too.

It had been a long day and we were in the tent and ready for bed at dusk preparing for the cold night ahead. We both slept warm and toasty in our sleeping bags but the 27F temperature that awaited us at sunrise made it a challenge to get up and get moving.

Monday November 4:

Once up, we didn't waste much time with trying to pack things away neatly. We just took down the tent and threw everything in the back of the truck and hit the road. We were in Cherokee buying fuel and headed for home before 0800. This trip didn't go exactly as planned, but we had fun, accomplished something, and made memories. That's all you can really ask for.