Hiking Maryland Heights in Harpers Ferry Area

A winter morning when I hiked Maryland Heights, overlooking the historic town of Harpers Ferry, at the confluence of Shenandoah and Potomac River.

Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights


Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights


Just like three weeks ago, snow had fallen over the mid-Atlantic region. Since I enjoyed my time hiking Loudoun Heights from Harpers Ferry then, I decided to visit the region again. This time, I picked the other of its two famous trails, Maryland Heights.
It turned out that with more snow on the ground (because I arrived earlier in the day) and some clouds covering mountain tops, I had greater fun this time.

Country Road

 Country Road
Country Road
For the first part of my trip, I deliberately stayed off Interstate 495/270 (to avoid morning traffic rush since it’s a weekday), and picked a series of country roads instead. The snowy scenes along these roads were magical.

Harpers Ferry Tunnel


Harpers Ferry Tunnel
From a bridge crossing over its not-famous east end.

Sandy Hook Road

 Sandy Hook Road
Sandy Hook Road
Approaching trailhead, with cliff on one side and river on another.

The workers had cleared off snow for most of Sandy Hook Road (yet its remaining width was still seemingly less than two car’s width), together with one of the two trailhead parking lots. Throughout my hike I believed my car was the only one in the parking lot.

C&O Canal


C&O Canal

C&O Canal Towpath


C&O Canal Towpath
There’s a small distance from the roadside parking lot to trailhead, I covered this segment on the Canal towpath. Some footprints from earlier risers.

Animal Footprints


Animal Footprints

I started my climb at 9:10 in the morning, of what’s officially part of Harpers Ferry National Historic Park (yes, in theory NPS charged admission for this trail).
And here’s GPS tracking:

Buildings across Potomac River


Buildings across Potomac River
On top of hill in the city of Harpers Ferry

Trail

 Trail
Trail Trail
Trail

There was just the right amount of snow on these hiking trails, so that one can experience the chill of winter without technical difficulties.

Trail

 Trail
Trail
Morning Fog hasn’t cleared on top of the mountain.

Fallen Tree

 Fallen Tree
Fallen Tree

At the fork(s) of trails, I decided to head for Maryland Heights Overlook first, and reached there at 10:05am.

Information Board


Information Board
The sheet of snow stayed amazingly intact.

Bird Flying above Maryland Heights


Bird Flying above Maryland Heights
One of the few creatures still out on such a snowy morning.

This is Harpers Ferry’s most postcard-perfect spot, whose views were much better than a few weeks back at Loudoun Heights. And since the sun hadn’t emerged from the clouds, the entire town of Harpers Ferry was covered in enchanting white.

Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights


Harpers Ferry from Maryland Heights

Potomac River


Potomac River

View from Maryland Heights


View from Maryland Heights

Chestnut Hill Road


Chestnut Hill Road
Leading to Loudoun Heights Trail, where I had been a few weeks ago.

Pine Trees


Pine Trees
Most of the hill was covered with deciduous trees. These pines trees at Maryland Heights were the only sight of green throughout the day.

Rocks and Maryland Heights


Rocks and Maryland Heights

I had a memorable time enjoying the sceneries at Maryland Heights, and left for “Stone Fort” at 10:25am.
It’s 2.3km from trailhead to the overlook of Maryland Heights. One could also choose to visit “Stone Fort” with Civil War remnants like me, making a total loop of 8.2km.

Freight Train Crossing Potomac River


Freight Train Crossing Potomac River

Moat


Moat

Along the (eastern) Stone Fort Trail, one would first be greeted with a fortification, the moat in the previous photo being part of it. It’s the first earthen battery on the mountain, built in 1862. 30-pound Parrotts were once stationed there.
Yet nowadays, if not for an information marker nearby (or probably the previous dry moat), there were few obvious signs left of what’s once a magnificent battery. (Hikers would probably take its huge and flat interior as some sort of campground.)

Trail

 Trail
Trail
The eastern part of Stone Fort Trail was mostly through woods like this. The trail was narrow and hard to find in snow at times.

Potomac River


Potomac River
Downstream of Harpers Ferry. It’s the site where a 100-pounder Parrott rifle was once placed. It’s also where I stopped and enjoyed some snacks.

Information Board


Information Board
Another one with intact sheet of snow.

Finally at 11:35am I arrived at Stone Fort.

Stone Fort Walls


Stone Fort Walls

Stone Fort was constructed at Maryland Heights’ highest point, over the winter of 1862-1863, that’s what still remained till this day. Next to Stone Fort there were additional fortifications. Together, they provided Union soldiers with storage and lodging spaces.

Stone Fort Grounds

 Stone Fort Grounds
Stone Fort Grounds

Forest

 Forest
Forest

Fort Walls

 Fort Walls
Fort Walls

Most of the soldiers garrisoned here lived in primitive tents. Condition was hard as this spot was susceptible to wind and rain, and lacking water or sanitation.

Stairs Down


Stairs Down
If not for the post, it’s hard to tell where the stairs/trail were from all this snow cover.

Trail

 Trail
Trail
Nobody else visited this part of the trail after snowfall (left), so I had some fun time sliding down the hill (right), which was only possible on new snow that’s not too deep. Had my sneakers been skis it would be greater fun.

Then I took the western part of Stone Fort Trail back to parking lot. This part of the trail was wider, thanks to Union soldiers that cut down some of the roadside trees so that they could haul material (most notable of which being the Parrott cannons) up the hill.
It’s also the trail that troops stationed at Maryland Heights took when they were ordered to retreat to Harpers Ferry on September 13, 1862. Forty hours later, the Union surrendered Harpers Ferry.

Roadblock


Roadblock
Which wasn’t too hard to slide underneath.

And it’s great fun (trying to) ski down this trail.
So at 12:30pm, I got back to the trailhead, finishing a morning of gratifying hike.
END

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hiking Maryland Heights in Harpers Ferry Area by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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