Little Devil's Staircase in a Cold Snap

Little Devils Staircase was the very first hike I did in Shenandoah National Park way back in 2005. It seemed like a pretty big, steep hike at the time, even though we only did the shorter loop that day. I've hiked it several times since then, but oddly, not since 2010. We snowshoed it that year after snowmaggedon. It is a great hike up a narrow canyon filled with little waterfalls. We figured that, since we haven't warmed up to even freezing in the last two weeks, that all of those waterfalls would have nice ice formations.

Today, it was 10 degrees when we arrived at the trailhead. Fortunately, there wasn't any wind. One nice thing about starting at the bottom of the mountain at those temperatures is you get warmed up fairly quickly from the work of hiking uphill immediately.

 Leaves trapped in the ice on the frozen creek.

 One of the first waterfalls

 Ice near one of many places where the trail crosses the creek. A couple of the crossings involved shuffling across very slippery ice (The creek is generally not very deep).

 Ribbons of ice across a rock. These look a bit like snakeskins to me.

 Ice at the bottom of a waterfall.

 Fungi on a tree.

 The Little Devils Staircase trail ends at the Keyser Run Fire Road. We decided to hike up the fire road to Skyline Drive.

 Once at the drive, we walked a short distance down to the Mount Marshall Overlook and had a great view to the east. That is The Peak on the left side of the photo.

Looking up at the trees near the Bolen Cemetery on Keyser Run Fire Road.

It was a lovely hike. After not doing much hiking beyond volunteering on Old Rag in 2017, it felt really good to be out. We saw a grand total of three people on the trails. By the time we reached the car, it was a balmy 25 degrees.

Little Devil's Staircase - Sometimes Slow is Good

We didn't set any land speed records today.  It took us almost four hours to hike the 2.3 mile Little Devil's Staircase Trail.  It took us two more hours to descend 3.3 miles on Keyser Run Fire Road.  Sometimes slow is good, though.  We introduced a friend to snowshoeing and saw all kinds of wonders in the snow. 

We started out just after ten this morning.  The trail was covered in deep snow and it was bright and sunny - perfect winter snowshoeing.  Right away, we saw Shenandoah Mountain Guide's ski tracks from a few days ago.  After hiking for half an hour or so, we came across a deer carcass.  It was an amazing scene:  the bones were mostly clean, but spread over a large area.  Clearly, based on the number and variety of tracks in the area, this deer provided food for many animals including a number of birds, raccoons, and mice.  We had no way to tell if it was killed by something or simply died there.

Soon, we started up the staircase.  The creek was running full, but fortunately, not too full to cross.  A foot of snow covered most of the rocks above the water.  This was where we really slowed down.  There were so many things to look at and photograph.  One of the special things about this hike is the canyon that you hike up into.  If you hike in the summer, after the leaves are on the trees, the canyon walls are almost hard to see, but in the winter, it is possible to see how narrow and steep it is.  The walls shoot straight up out of the creek for 100 feet on the north side of it.  Today, some of those walls were covered in beautiful blue-gray ice formations.  There are a couple of places that are pretty steep when the ground is dry.  The snow made each of those spots extra challenging. 

After the last creek crossing, we made our way up the switchbacks towards the Keyser Run Fire Road.  Along the way, we crossed many rabbit, mice, and bird tracks.  Just before the road, we saw a set of tracks that just might be a bobcat.  It is hard to be sure if we are that lucky, but the tracks are consistent with what I've looked up.  I'd be interested to know what people think of the picture below.

The only tracks on the fire road were Shenandoah Mountain Guide's.  We realized that he had actually not only skied down the staircase, but had skied up the 3.3.mile fire road.  He was not, as far as we could tell, using cross-country skis.  We were all pretty impressed by that.  We made better time on the fire road, pausing at an overlook that is usually blocked by leaves and undergrowth and then again at the cemetery at the junction with the Hull School Trail. The snow on the fire road below the junction was soft, making a little bit of glissading possible.

Lots of photos below the jump (click on the pictures to enlarge):