The park has a well known feature to it, wild ponies. Not quite my idea of wild though, as they are fenced in to keep them in the park and they were introduced to the region to keep the mountain top clear of brush. How thoughtful. A sign greets you at the entrance.
They kick and bite. Do not walk behind. Hm. Okay. Spotted one right away.
Seems docile enough. Found a bunch more.
Hey wait stay there.
Oh come on now I have to walk behind the pony! The sign warned me not to. Jackass.
They didn't seem to care about much. Just doing their thing. Onto the mountain!
The scenery was definitely worth it as the path begins up the hillside.
The foliage was not really that different than what one would find in the Catskills. Surprising seeing as it is 10 hours away.
Mount Rogers is up there somewhere. There are very few places where you can actually see the peak from a marked trail.
This peak was nearby and had some nice boulders to scramble across. As I went higher, the air grew colder. Before I knew it I was in the clouds. The cool humid air blew all around. Not much traffic up here either. None actually.
Gotta be careful with the low visibility, a herd of vicious ponies hid not far from the trail.
The next two hours I spent essentially lost. The ponies did create one problem, lots of paths crossing everywhere. Although the main trails were well marked, if you stopped paying attention you could quickly go off trail and not know it for awhile. Which I did, Multiple times. I'm not going to complain though as I saw plenty of wonderful sights..
It did eventually get old though, especially when I ran into the same gate three times. Enough of this dilly dallying, onto the peak!
Not exactly what one would expect at a "high peak". The top is heavily forested. There is no view. None the less it was beautiful forest. Very moist, lush and green. I kicked the peak marker then wandered around.
Tip of this rock was the peak.
I love this type of forest.
Once satisfied I shot down the mountain. And got lost again. Damn pony trails! As I later found out, one of the intersection signs was actually rotated 90 degrees incorrectly and the sign lined up with a pony trail so it didn't look odd. Getting back out of the clouds meant I ran into them, again.
It was a peaceful pass. I had a lot of time still left in the day despite my dilly dallying so I decided to do another loop in a different part of the park. A waterfall marker is enough to hold my interest.
I loved this trail. Absolutely no traffic and offered a completely different experience from climbing Mount Rogers. All within the same park.
One has to wonder how a tree grew like this.
A beautiful creek running through the ravine, complete with a few waterfalls and even contained trout.
Virginia is noted as having really nice parks and I would have to agree. The layout was friendly, parking was cheap and the peak wasn't exactly difficult yet still worth it. Plus there is no denying that autumn can spice anything up.
