Fifth Annual Hike Off the Pie: Waterfalls and Rocks

Every year, I go hiking with friends on Black Friday. This year, there were three of us and the weather was unbelievable: highs in the upper 60s. As usual, we managed to find an epic off-trail adventure.

We started at eastern boundary of Shenandoah National Park on the Rose River Fire Road. As soon as we crossed into the park, we took a fisherman's path down to the river. We needed to cross the river and take the first significant side stream that entered from the north side of the river. The water was too deep to cross without changing shoes, so we just looked for a wide, slower spot in the river. The water was cold. Not surprising - it is November, but still...brrr. We would not have attempted this hike if the temperatures had been closer to normal for this time of year. It was bad enough when the air temperature was in the 60s. Feet dry and boots back on, we hiked up the side stream, reaching Climbing Rose Falls in relatively short order. The falls were really pretty, well worth the trip. I would like to go back there early in the morning or late in the evening to take more pictures.

From there, we hiked straight up a crazy steep hill towards the top of the ridge, where we would take a right and head across a saddle to Buzzard Rocks. The climb was tough and the leaves made it hard to find footing in a lot of places. It wouldn't be a Hike Off the Pie without a memorable climb, though. We ran across some old farm ruins along the way, which was a neat surprise. You can see similar ones throughout the park, but this one was a little bit unique. In other areas of the park, often there is evidence of old roads near the ruins. Not in this case. Whoever lived in this spot reached in solely on foot or on horseback. A little bit later, we reached the saddle, where we found a footpath that led all the way to Buzzard Rocks. We had lunch there. I tried to reach the top of the rocks, but didn't have any luck. I got a point where I would have needed climbing gear, but not before a pitched battle with mountain laurel and greenbrier.

After lunch, we headed west towards the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail. This involved climbing 2.5 miles over Spitler Hill. It seemed to go on forever and there must have been 15 false summits before we finally reached the trail. The walk was very pretty, but by the time we reached the trail, we were all tired of route-finding and wading through briers. We took a break on the trail and then began the long hike back to the car. We paused again at Dark Hollow Falls before heading down the Rose River Fire Road. We finally reached the car an hour after sunset. It was a great hike. I definitely want to check out Climbing Rose Falls again.

Crossing the chilly Rose River

Upper Climbing Rose Falls.

I used this log to brace my camera when I was shooting the waterfalls. I looked down and happened to notice the crawdad claw and head. Something caught the crawdad and had a meal on the log, leaving a few bits behind.

The ruins we found near a spring.

Wild grapes tangled in greenbrier.

The view from my high point on Buzzard Rocks. The peak in the distance is Stony Mountain.

 Lichen on rock.

 A little bird nest.

Lower Dark Hollow Falls shortly before sunset.

Old Rag and Dark Hollow Falls

This past weekend, Old Rag Mountain Stewards (ORMS) held training at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. In our downtime on Saturday, a group of us hiked down to Dark Hollow Falls. I've hiked up to the falls from the Rose River trailhead on the boundary of the park, but hadn't actually ever hiked from Skyline Drive. It is one of the busiest trails in the park, probably busier than even Old Rag simply because of its proximity to Big Meadows and its length (only 1.5 miles round trip). In spite of the short distance, it is plenty steep and and you hike down first. We saw more than a few people who had underestimated the effort required to return to their car.

Tusilago farafara (Coltsfoot). Although not native, Coltsfoot is pretty and it has the distinction of being the first wildflower I saw this year.

 Upper Dark Hollow Falls

Another view of Upper Dark Hollow Falls

Lower Dark Hollow Falls. The water is forced into much smaller crevices in the lower falls.

On Sunday, training was held on Old Rag. We inventoried the cache at Byrd's Nest Shelter and generally enjoyed the very nice weather. The mountain was very busy, but we came up from Berry Hollow, so we missed most of that. The native wildflowers have started blooming in the valleys, which made me very happy to see after a long winter.

Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot). One of the first flowers of spring.

Another S. canadensis

Corydalis flava (Yellow Corydalis)

Lindera benzoin (Spicebush)

Byrd's Nest Shelter through the trees from the Saddle Trail.

Looking down from the summit at the rock scramble.

One of many opferkessels  (which is a great word) on the summit of Old Rag. They are often filled with water, like this one.

So, I often say that there is nothing out there that I could possibly see or hear about on Old Rag that would surprise me. I was proven wrong twice this weekend: 1) A ranger said that he saw a woman with a parrot on a leash on the mountain on Saturday. That actually surprised me. I have not seen anyone with a parrot on the mountain before. 2) Above. Some idiot filled at least two of the obferkessels with plaster. Seriously. The plaster wouldn't easily come out (two members of our group tried), so it will just be there.

 Looking southeast from the summit.

A butterfly near the summit sign.

Fourteen Miles of Waterfalls and Wildflowers: Dark Hollow Falls and Rose River Falls

Yesterday was the perfect spring day.  We spent it hiking with a friend in the Rose River area of the Central District of Shenandoah National Park.  It started out just a little cool, birds were singing, flowers were blooming and the waterfalls were still full from recent rains and snowmelt.  The wildflowers make spring one my favorite times of the year for hiking.  We followed the Rose River Fire Road 6.4 miles as it lazily winds its way up from the valley to Skyline Drive, passing Dark Hollow Falls along the way.  Seriously, this might be the easiest hike up to Skyline Drive in the park.  We then turned right onto the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail and followed that for half a mile, where we turned right onto the Rose River Trail.  That took us past Rose River Falls and back to the Fire Road.  All said and done, it was a 14 mile day.

As we pulled into the parking area, I noticed that Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's Breeches) were blooming along the roadside.  Once parked, I hopped out of the car to take pictures of them before even putting my boots on.  It was clearly going to be a good day.  There were a few people in the parking lot who were there to fly fish on the Rose River, but we would not see another person until we were nearly to Dark Hollow Falls. 

Along the lower reaches of the Rose River Fire Road, the path was lined with D. cucullaria, Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot), Dentaria lacinata (Cut-Leaf Toothwort), the occasional Hepatica nobolis (Liverwort), and a few different violets.  We also found what may be the first blooming Trillium grandiflora (Giant Trillium) in a ditch along the old roadbed.  We crossed a bridge over a pretty tributary of the Rose River and then came across an old cemetery in the woods.  It was a fairly large cemetery, which, along with the stone walls and the daffodils, is a reminder of the people who lived here before there was a park.

Shortly after that, we passed the junction with the Upper Dark Hollow Trail and then began some long switchbacks.  Along one of them, we spotted a spring flower that is new to me:  Caulophyllum thalyctroides (Blue Cohosh).  It is a tall, rather dark flower.  It takes its name from the bright blue berries it produces.  We stopped for a quick lunch before heading on to Dark Hollow Falls.

All of a sudden, there were people everywhere.  Dark Hollow Falls is only a half mile below Skyline Drive, making it a popular stop for those on the Drive.  The Falls are beautiful and definitely worth the stop.  After taking several pictures and climbing up to see the upper falls, we continued a mile up the fire road to do the Rose River Loop, another popular short hike for people on the Drive.  Just before reaching Skyline Drive, we turned down the Horse Trail, which connected to the Rose River Trail.  We thought we had long since left the wildflowers in the warmer valley below us, when we rounded a corner to find clumps of purple H. nobolis.  We spent a little time enjoying the cool mist of Rose River Falls before continuing on.

At the confluence of Hogcamp Branch and the Rose River, there is an old copper mine.  The tailings are clearly visible and there is a short path up on to one of the mounds.  There isn't much to see there, but it is an interesting part of the history of the park.  Hogcamp Branch has beautiful waterfall after beautiful waterfall, cascading over bright green moss-covered rocks.  It was warm enough that, on a short break, we dunked our heads in the water to cool off.  As we continued on, I was just about to say that this would be the first hike since the end of November without any snow, when I looked up and saw a small remnant snowbank.  There isn't much left of it, but there it was, snow at the beginning of April.

After reaching Dark Hollow Falls, we returned down the Rose River Fire Road to the car.  As we hiked down the mountain, we made our way our of late winter into early spring.  One of the joys of getting out into the woods often is you get to see the forest slowly wake up after the long winter.  This week, most of the wildflowers were in the first 1.5 miles of the trail.  Next week, they will be a little higher. 

We couldn't have asked for better weather or a nicer hike.  Even with all of the stopping to take pictures, we cranked out 14 miles in 7.5 hours, definitely earning the ice cream we had in town.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's Breetches)

Cardamine concatenata (Cut Leaf Toothwort)

Trillium grandiflora (Giant Trillium).  This was the only one blooming along the road, although others were coming up.  This is pretty early for them.

Anemone americana (Liverwort)

Caulophyllum thalyctroides (Blue Cohosh).

Upper Dark Hollow Falls

A pretty clump of A. americana along the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail.

Rose River Falls.

Rose River Falls

The remnant snowbank.  We have not had a snow-free hike in the mountains since the last weekend in November.

A large Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot) on the fire road on the way down.