SOUTHBOUND

Christy and I woke up first thing Sunday morning at the campground in Ohiopyle State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. We had a long drive ahead of us, but I wanted to squeeze one more hike in. I had a bunch of ideas, but our options were limited due to the long drive. We changed plans multiple times during the drive south.

We had just started driving when I got a timely tip from Mark Oleg. Fall color was at its peak around The Cascades, near Blacksburg, VA. I was surprised, as that is a relatively low elevation. I would’ve expected it to be later there. The Cascades are a fairly short, easy hike, and the trailhead would only be slightly out of the way. We decided to head that way.

In keeping with the theme of changing plans, I initially thought that we might start from an upper trailhead on a remote forest road and include Barneys Wall in the hike. That would give us some great views in addition to the waterfalls. However, it would’ve added more than an hour of driving, and we already had a long drive ahead of us. We decided to do the hike the way normal people do.

There were a lot of normal people doing the hike that afternoon. It was a Sunday, the weather nice, and the giant parking lot at the trailhead was packed. When I say “giant parking lot”, I mean that there are shopping malls with less parking than this trailhead. Incredibly, we got the last empty spot. That was alarming, as I don’t like hiking in crowds. Surprisingly, the trail didn’t seem that busy. That’s probably because there are trails on both sides of Little Stony Creek. It seems like most people go up one side and down the other. As a result, we never encountered most of the people that were ahead of us.

Parking there costs a couple of dollars, but for that fee you get the privilege of using one of the scariest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Third world countries have better plumbing.

The hike along the creek was gorgeous. It was still early for Fall color in that general area, but it was near peak along the creek itself. Little Stony Creek features one beautiful cascade after another. The hike would be satisfying without the waterfall at the end, but that feature takes it to another level.

The Cascades are one of the most famous waterfalls in Virginia. Little Stony Creek plunges off a cliff into a wide, deep pool surrounded by cliffs. When we arrived, we found the falls and pool surrounded by stunning foliage. It was a fairly busy place, but luckily the water was a bit too cold for swimming (for most people). I managed to get a number of photos of the waterfall without blurry people in them. The bright sun made for challenging photography, but I managed to get a few photos that I liked.

Afterwards, we climbed up to another trail – an old road that stays on the hillside above the creek. That provides an express route back to the trailhead. Christy started that way, while I added a side trip to my hike. There is a lesser-known waterfall upstream from The Cascades. I’d visited it over 20 years earlier, but I didn’t remember anything about it or exactly where it was. That didn’t stop me from trying to go there again though. The spot looked pretty obvious on the map, so I followed the trail up the canyon, high above the creek. When I reached the spot, I was still well above the creek, but I could hear it roaring down below.

After a short bushwhack down, I spotted a cascade or small waterfall far below. The route down looked terrible, and I began to have doubts. Was that the correct spot? I was expecting something of a beaten path to the waterfall. It’s less known, but that doesn’t mean unknown.

This didn’t feel right, so I bailed out. Later I found out that the actual waterfall is much farther upstream. There is an interesting feature in between though. I’ll save that for a future visit.

I found Christy waiting in the car. We headed straight home from there, only stopping for dinner at a Mexican restaurant near Kingsport, TN. The drive home was smooth, although we didn’t get back until pretty late Sunday evening.

We had a pretty good trip with a lot of great hikes, but the bad weather and my sinus infection derailed a lot of our plans. Maybe we’ll give New England another try next Fall?

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