Hiking Riprap Trail of Shenandoah National Park

A trip on a popular hiking trail in the southern part of Shenandoah National Park that I went with my school’s outdoor club.

Chimney Rock

Riprap was a popular trail in the southern part of Shenandoah National Park. At 15km long, it formed a loop that featured diverse terrains from creeks and swimming ponds to rocky and scenic overlooks. This trip happened on the third Saturday of October, about peak foliage time in the park.

We reached Swiftrun Gap entrance of Shenandoah National Park just before 10am, with a short queue of cars that attested to the park’s popularity in autumn. By the time we reached Riprap Trail Parking, it’s 10:40am and we managed to park in the last spots of the tiny parking lot. (Since it’s a loop trail, the alternative parking was at “Wildcat Ridge Parking”, which was our backup option that’s presumably not as popular.)
After some warmup, it’s 10:50am by the time we started the hike. We decided to take the loop in the counterclockwise direction, scenery first.
Here’s GPS tracking:

 
Trail

Typical conditions before reaching Chimney Rock. The trail started out in a very gradual manner.

 
Hill and Distant Fields

These photos were taken about 2km from trailhead from an small overlook. Not until after the trip did I realize it was officially named “Calvary Rock”. In my opinion, the views at Chimney Rock were much better.

Finally, around 11:40am, we reached Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock was a series of boulders, offering views of Trayfoot Mountain to the north and Shenandoah Valley to the west. The most prominent was a flattop boulder (p1 below, I had no idea how the lady managed to get on top of it) that took either a leap of faith (I don’t recommend that), some scrambling (p3-4 below) or magic to reach. I wasn’t in scrambling gear so I didn’t give it a try.

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Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock

 
Scrambling Section

I didn’t see a clear way of scrambling up to Chimney Rock (left), so I decided to a more obvious route (right) to a platform where I could stretch my legs.

Chimney Rock
Viewed from the platform where I decided to take some rests.

Chimney Rock

From the second overlook slightly to the west. The platform in the foreground was where I decided to rest my legs.

Mountains
From the second overlook slightly to the west. This rock was much more accessible.

Otherwise, Chimney Rock was spacious enough for people to spread out and enjoy the views, which were spectacular at the height of autumn. My friends found a smaller overlook slightly to the west of Chimney Rock, which was much more accessible.

Click here to display photos from Chimney Rock.

Mountains

Mountains

Fields

Fields beyond Lefthand Hollow

Distant Fields

View from Chimney Rock
From the first (top) and second (bottom) overlook.

At about 12:10pm, we left Chimney Rock and continued our hike. Views occasionally broke free from the vegetation along the trail, the final encores of scenery before the trail descended down into a valley.

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Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail along Riprap Creek

Trail

At around 12:50pm the trail joined Riprap Creek at what looked like a mini gorge. On the internet, this was the most popular waterfall of Riprap Trail, so we stopped here to appreciate the scenery. I liked that the fallen leaves were floating on Riprap Creek, together with the moss that grew on the few exposed rocks made for a perfect collection of colors.

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Creek and Waterfalls

Creek

Upstream, a few logs spanned across Riprap Creek. They were obviously artificial, but we didn’t know what they were for.

Creek
The fallen leaves that decorated the creek.

Creek
The fallen leaves that decorated the creek.

Gorge Downstream
Downstream, where the trail continued to follow Riprap Creek.

Gorge Downstream
Downstream, where the trail continued to follow Riprap Creek.

A short distance down the trail, Riprap Creek entered a pond. It’s believed that in summer, people used this as a swimming destination. During our visit the pond appeared largely covered in the golden color of fallen leaves, one that blended seamlessly into the surrounding tranquil landscape.
Much to our surprise, we found a few fish in this pond.

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Pond

Pond

Pond

Continuing on, the trail crossed Riprap Creek for a total of three times. During our visit none of the water crossings presented any challenges, and I easily managed to stay dry.

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Water Crossing
The first (left) and last (right) crossing of Riprap Creek.

Trail along Riprap Creek
Autumn colors were abundant along this section.

Riprap Creek
The floating leaves on the creek as the last colors of the season.

Riprap Creek
From the last water crossing along Wildcat Ridge Trail.

Riprap Creek
From the last water crossing along Wildcat Ridge Trail.

Water Crossing
The last crossing of Riprap Creek before ascending on Wildcat Ridge Trail.

Just before the last water crossing, we made a turn onto Wildcat Ridge Trail, and started to regain the elevation back towards Skyline Drive. This section featured the best colors of foliage, with a few leaves turning red, a color I wasn’t so used to in Shenandoah.

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Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

At 2:40pm, we reached the intersection with the Appalachian Trail. My phone’s barometer could sense a change in the weather as a few clouds were rolling in. We hastened our pace as an afternoon drizzle arrived, as the weather forecast predicted. Glad that we covered the scenic portions around Chimney Rock first.

Click here to display photos of the trail.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Luckily, the drizzle was never strong enough to wet our clothes, as we made our way back to the cars just before 3:50pm, finishing the loop in just under 5 hours.

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Forests

Forests

Forests

Forests

Mountains from Loft Mountain Overlook

And that almost concluded our day, if I exclude the unusually heavy traffic back to Washington DC, even on US29, as if the entire city was heading back from foliage hunts during the day.
END

Hiking Riprap Trail of Shenandoah National Park by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.