Day Trip to Shenandoah National Park

Another autumn day as my friends and I ventured into nature again. This time we were visiting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, hiking Whiteoak Canyon / Cedar Run Loop and Bearfence Mountain.

Sunset View


Sunset View

Whiteoak Canyon / Cedar Run Loop

After a little bit over two hours and abnormally busy traffic on the usually quiet Virginia Route 15/211, we arrived at the parking lot which was marked as “Lower Hawksbill Trailhead” on maps.

This loop trail had a dedicated parking lot down the hill on Weakley Hollow Road off Skyline Drive. However, by the time we visited the lower parking lot was closed due to bridge maintenance (online comments indicated it’s reopened as of Oct 11), so parking was a challenge as it was a relatively small lot accommodating three trails (this one plus Crescent Rock and Hawksbill Peak). Fortunately, we pulled into the only open spot at the time, so I could leave my worries with all the annoying bugs.

Parking Lot


Parking Lot

And here’s GPS tracking.

So at 12:10pm we started the hike. The trail soon forked into Cedar Run Trail and a horse trail, and we took the former first.

Cedar Run

Forking Trails


Forking Trails


Leaves in Autumn Color


Leaves in Autumn Color


Trail

 Trail
Trail Trail
Trail

Cedar Run Trail started with an easy descent and gradually grew more and more rocky as we started to follow Cedar Run. With not much rainfall recently, there’s barely any waterflow on Cedar Run underneath its rocky surface.

Cedar Run

 Cedar Run
Cedar Run


Forest

 Forest
Forest


Trail by Creek

 Trail by Creek
Trail by Creek


Cedar Run in Autumn Colors


Cedar Run in Autumn Colors


Boulders

 Boulders
Boulders


Trail

 Trail
Trail


Cedar Run

 Cedar Run
Cedar Run
About an hour into our trip we had our lunch by these rocks.

Even with not much water flowing on Cedar Run, we came across a group of younglings looking to have some adventure with this natural water slide.

Water Slide?


Water Slide?

And they did seem to have fun here.

Water Splash


Water Splash


Cedar Run Falls

 Cedar Run Falls
Cedar Run Falls
The first of such falls marked on the map where Cedar Run carved its path into this giant piece of rock.


Rocks


Rocks


Cedar Run


Cedar Run


Cedar Run


Cedar Run
I was pretty fond of this photo, of serenity of nature.


Small Water Slide


Small Water Slide
No adventurous souls here.


Trail


Trail
Most of the lower portions of Cedar Run Trail was on rocky paths like this, navigating through which wasn’t that easy as I had first expected.


Leaves Changing Color


Leaves Changing Color


Pond

 Pond
Pond
The second of “Cedar Run Falls” was here by the maps.


Cedar Run


Cedar Run

And after that, the remaining Cedar Run Trail was wide and flat, and it had kept that way as we entered Whiteoak Canyon Trail.

Forest

 Forest
Forest

Whiteoak Canyon

Rocky Creek

 Rocky Creek
Rocky Creek
This one’s not on maps.


Robinson River

 Robinson River
Robinson River
Lack of rainfall meant this one had more rocks than water too.


Bridge over Robinson River


Bridge over Robinson River


Camps down Robinson River


Camps down Robinson River


Robinson River


Robinson River Robinson River
Robinson River


Flowers

 Flowers
Flowers


Pond on Robinson River


Pond on Robinson River
Lack of waterflow meant stillness was taking over.


Robinson River


Robinson River

Along Whiteoak Canyon Trail there were a few waterfalls off almost vertical cliffs, and they were more accessible and not as dumb as the ones on Cedar Run.

Water Slide Again


Water Slide Again


Lower Whiteoak Falls


Lower Whiteoak Falls Lower Whiteoak Falls
Lower Whiteoak Falls


Trail


Trail
Near the waterfalls with rapid ascent, Whiteoak Canyon Trail would occasionally take this rocky form.


Trail

 Trail
Trail
But most of the time, Whiteoak Canyon Trail was not as hard.


Valley View


Valley View


Upper Whiteoak Falls


Upper Whiteoak Falls


Robinson River

 Robinson River
Robinson River


Upper Whiteoak Falls


Upper Whiteoak Falls


Boulders

 Boulders
Boulders


Valley View


Valley View


Upper Whiteoak Falls

 Upper Whiteoak Falls
Upper Whiteoak Falls


Robinson River

 Robinson River
Robinson River

Fire Road

After crossing a footbridge (or in our case where there’s not much water, crossing Robinson River 50 meters before the bridge), we made it onto the last part of the loop which was a fire road. And like all fire roads in Shenandoah National Park, it was not as exciting as rest of the hike, which, on the good side, meant we wouldn’t be noticing the elevation gain here by much.

Fire Road

 Fire Road
Fire Road


Fire Road

 Trail
Trail


Forest


Forest


Fire Road

 Fire Road
Fire Road

And for the last kilometer, we were back on the horse trail, where the trail grew a lot narrower and rockier, still not much of a big deal though.

Tree with Twisted Branches


Tree with Twisted Branches


Trail among Wildflowers


Trail among Wildflowers
With breeze blowing, this wave of red seemed surreal under sunset lights.


Flowers


Flowers

At this time sunset was still more than two hours away. After enjoying some snacks and resupplying water at visitor center, we decided to head over to Bearfence Mountain to experience some rock scrambling, and hopefully to catch a beautiful sunset.

Park Road

 Park Road
Park Road

Bearfence Mountain

The entire Bearfence Mountain Trail was barely more than a mile, with about 200 meters of rock scrambling making the perfect introductory rock scrambling course.

And here’s GPS tracking.

Rocks

 Rocks
Rocks
Unfortunately, while rock scrambling I had to stow my camera, so these rocks towards the beginning of the trail were all that I could take photo of.

Unlike Old Rag, the rock scrambling portion of Bearfence Mountain was well marked, making it impossible to take a dangerous turn and get lost (which also take away some of the fun of rock scrambling).

Flowers


Flowers
And a bee flying among them.

So not long after that, we were at the first vista along the trail.

Mountain Ranges


Mountain Ranges
Mountain Ranges


Mountain Ranges


Mountain Ranges Mountain Ranges
Mountain Ranges


View from Bearfence Mountain Summit


View from Bearfence Mountain Summit


Mountain Ranges


Mountain Ranges
Looking towards East where civilization was.


Signal Tower on Distant Mountains


Signal Tower on Distant Mountains

On the map there were two vistas’ along Bearfence Mountain Trail. It turned out that views on the first (Northern) one was much better than the second (Southern), that’s also where most people were sat waiting for sunset.

And at the second vista, view towards West was much obscured by overgrown trees (with no views towards East at all…).

Setting Sun behind Clouds

 Setting Sun behind Clouds
Setting Sun behind Clouds
Setting Sun behind Clouds


Mountain Ranges in Sunset Glow


Mountain Ranges in Sunset Glow

Since we were already at the second vista with compromised views, and there was still time before sunset, my friends and I decided to head back and hopefully catch sunset on some overlook along Skyline Drive, which we did eventually.

Berries


Berries


Rocky Trail

 Rocky Trail
Rocky Trail
The easier part of Bearfence Mountain Trail, part of Appalachian.


Leaves Changing Color

 Leaves Changing Color
Leaves Changing Color


Fallen Tree


Fallen Tree


Branching Out


Branching Out
What happened to the bark?

Sunset at The Point Overlook

And just as the sun was about to set, we reached The Point Overlook.

Sunset

 Sunset
Sunset
Sunset

A wonderful way to conclude a day.

Sunset View


Sunset View
Sunset View
Sunset View


Mountain Ranges


Mountain Ranges

Oh, and we spotted the only wildlife of the day on our way back.

Deer

 Deer
Deer


END

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Day Trip to Shenandoah National Park by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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