Hiking Rocky Brown Mountain Loop in Shenandoah

First weekend of October, I went hiking in Shenandoah National Park among early autumn colors.

It’s almost a yearly tradition for me to head to Virginia in autumn when the mountains put on a palette of colors. This time, I picked one of the few trails in Shenandoah National Park that I hadn’t visited before, and hiked Rocky and Brown Mountain Loop.

While I envisioned hiking in cool autumn conditions among vivid colors, the day turned out to be hotter than what I’d like. After setting out from my home in Washington DC suburb, I had to occasionally use air-conditioning in my car during the drive to the trailhead. The southern part of Shenandoah National Park wasn’t that popular, and by the time I got to the trailhead “Brown Mountain Overlook”, the small parking lot was less than half filled.

I woke up sort of early today so I decided to have my lunch at the trailhead before my hike, and I was greeted with the first nuisance of the day, bugs. They were out in full swing, probably due to the warm autumn weather, and really bothered me while I was arranging my gears for the hike.

Brown and Rocky Mountain Loop

Eager to escape the bugs, I readied myself and headed onto the trail at 11:50am.
Here's GPS tracking:

Since Skyline Drive was built along a ridge, the first part of the trail was actually heading downhill, as a typical walk in the woods.

About 900m from trailhead, the trail reached a three-way intersection. Both branches formed the loop that I was to hike, which I chose the counterclockwise direction. So I made a right turn and continued towards Rocky Mountain.

I saw the highest concentration of wildflowers close to the intersection. Theri uplifting presence certainly made the hike more enjoyable.

In addition, next to the flowers I had a few insect sightings today, mostly bees at work, but I also ran into a moth that wasn’t camera shy.

After the intersection, the trail went on a steady incline to recover elevation. 1.4km after the intersection, the trail reached an overlook which in my opinion offered the best views along the entire loop.

First Overlook

With most of the trail in shaded woods, this overlook (2.3km from trailhead) provided a rare opportunity to appreciate the rolling hills towards the south. Unfortunately, it wasn’t marked on maps, and I regretted not staying there for longer. While the remainder of the trail would cross Rocky and Brown Mountains, it didn’t reach the summits of either and there weren’t great views like this one.

After leaving the previous overlook, between Rocky and Brown Mountain, I entered a section of the woods where autumn colors arrived earlier than the rest of the park. These enchanting colors were certainly a highlight of the day.

Between Rocky and Brown Mountains the trail passed through a field where a few scorched trees stood testimony to the fire that this forest had been through not that long ago. The dense but short vegetations around the trail spoke of its recovery from fire. It’s the only section of the trail that’s without shade.

After that, the trail passed Brown Mountain and started its descent down to the adjacent valley.
It’s worth noting that at higher elevations, I frequently ran into spider nets which was another nuisance of the day. But probably due to their presence, I wasn’t as bothered by bugs. But as I got lower in elevation, the trouble of bugs seemed back. It’s like I had to choose between two evils, which wasn’t pleasant.

Second Overlook

Past Brown Mountain and approximately 700m of elevation and 5km from trailhead, the trail made a U-turn. Near that turn, I found a few rocks just steps away from the trail overlooking the valley to the south. I’d hoped that either Rocky or Brown Mountain would offer some sort of views at their summits, but that didn’t happen. So I was thrilled by my discovery and hopped onto the rocks where I sat and soaked in the scenery.

I took a 15-minute rest at the overlook before continuing downhill. Soon after that, the trail passed through another section of burnt forest. This time, the bushes along the trail were still wearing their summer green colors.

Finally, just past 3pm and 7.5km from trailhead, I reached the lowest elevation point of the trail next to a creek called “Big Run”. After that, I would take the trail along the creek back up to the trailhead.

Along Creek

As the trail followed the creek upstream, it would make a total of 4 water crossings, which might be a deterrent for some people to try out the trail. During my visit, there were enough exposed rocks at each of the water crossings, that I made all 4 without getting my feet wet. I did this with the help of hiking poles, but they were certainly manageable without poles.

The trail along the creek was wider and easier to tackle. Unfortunately, the width of the trail didn’t stop spiders from setting their nets across, much to my annoyance. To make matters worse, I was also plagued by a few bugs along the creek. These bugs seemed particularly interested in areas around my ears, and they followed me persistently for that, creating intermittent and disturbing noises along the way.

Not long after the fourth water crossing, the trail reached another intersection. I took a left here to stay on the path back to Brown Mountain Overlook.

After leaving the intersection down the valley, the trail started to pick up elevation gain going back towards trailhead.

In the end, I reached the first intersection at 5:10pm, completing the loop. After some rests there, I continued on and got back to my car at 5:40pm.

Rest of Shenandoah

After some snacks to refresh myself from the hike, there was still about an hour left till sunset. Thus on my way back, I stopped at a few roadside turnouts and appreciated the scenery.

Loft Mountain Overlook

Rocky Mountain Overlook

I was hoping to catch a sunset somewhere in Shenandoah National Park. Unfortunately, most of the west-facing turnouts in the southern part of the Park didn’t have very open views. In the end, I decided to stop at Rocky Mountain Overlook, and joined a group of people waiting for sunset.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have good lucks with sunset recently, and today was no exception. Thick clouds were over the western horizon, so there were no sightings of the actual sun this afternoon. Instead I ended my day with the fiery colors of those clouds under sunset.

END