Spy Rock and Crabtree Falls

The girls were out and about again and decided to knock a couple more hikes off of the top 20 list.  We started early in the morning and when we arrived at Spy Rock, we had the parking lot to ourselves.  I love it when we arrive to an empty parking lot because that always means fewer people on the trail.

Spy Rock made it to the 2nd most popular trail on the Virginia Hiking Guides top 20.  I have always seen plenty of hikers and backpackers on this trail, so that doesn't surprise me.  Once you get just below the great dome of rock known as Spy Rock, there are wonderful spots for camping out on a lovely open mossy ridge so most weekends you will find some folks camped out here.

The beginning of the climb to Spy Rock is basically up a private road with several private camps and cabins.  This part of the trail is fairly boring and this morning we found a lot of ice and snow on the road.

 

 

Interestingly, once we gained some elevation the snow and ice cleared out and we just had a muddy trail joining up with the AT.  We continued along the AT until reaching the nice clearing with the campsites.

 

 

This spot is particularly lovely in the spring when all of the mountain laurel are blooming as you walk through large areas full of the mountain laurel.  This is the point that the hike becomes really fun as you have to climb the rock looming ahead.  The dome is made up of a large rock which has a rough surface and makes it pretty easy to climb, but there is some hand over hand climbing involved as seen in the next picture.

 

The payoff is worth it, though, because once up on the dome, you have beautiful panoramic vistas of range after range after range of mountains.

 

 

On top of the rock are lovely pools of water which are full of tadpoles in the summer and small shells year-round.  There are also some rather large crevices for exploring, if you are so inclined.

 



 

 

This is an up and back hike so after enjoying some lunch up on the rock, we returned the way we came.  This is not a long hike, just over three miles, but does gain some decent elevation.  If you would like more information about this hike, you can visit this site.

 

 

Only a few miles away, is another hike on the top 20 list, Crabtree Falls.  Crabtree Falls is listed as number 6 on the top 20 list.  Crabtree is very popular year-round and you almost never have this trail to yourself but the waterfalls never disappoint.

 

As with all of our hikes this winter, the water was flowing strong but Crabtree had far more ice than any of the other falls.

 



 

Unfortunately, we were only able to get up about .5 mile before encountering large icefields blocking the path, so for safety's sake we turned around and will have to complete this one another day, although we had all done this hike before.  Here are some more pictures of the beautiful, frozen waterfalls found on this trail.

 

 



For more information about Crabtree Falls, see here.