Weekend Trip to Shenandoah, Hiking and Star Gazing

A weekend of hiking to South Shenandoah with my friends, in the middle of September at the tail of summer.

Saint Mary Falls

It’s the middle of September when weather forecast indicated sunny days and clear skies for the weekend. Given the fact that my NPS annual pass had only been used once since its purchase in July, my friends and I set off for the southern part of Shenandoah National Park, and planned two days of hiking and a night of stargazing.

We left home at 10am, on the morning of September 19. Unfortunately, construction along I66 in Northern Virginia was in full swing, which created a huge traffic jam near Manassas even for a Saturday morning. So by the time we reached the town of Culpeper, it’s already 12:30pm.

Burgandine House

In the town of Culpeper, we planned a short visit to Burgandine House to stretch our legs. Built about 1800, it’s the oldest residence in the town of Culpeper. Now it’s a museum into the town’s colonial past.

Burgandine House Exterior

Burgandine House

Once inside, we were greeted by a wonderful couple that served as the museum’s guide. Dressed in colonial clothes, they gave a very detailed walkthrough of both the town and the house’s history. The house wasn’t very large, the above photos showed most of its ground floor. But it’s well preserved, like the guide’s own house, where every seemingly insignificant object has its own story, like clothes for the Virginian militia that once roamed this land, the pots that were used to cook food, so on.

And here were some objects that most fascinated me.

 
Tea Bricks

It’s my first time seeing tea bricks, a traditional way of preserving tea. The brick was much harder than I anticipated, more like a construction brick than something to dissolve in water. The guides told me the marks on both faces indicated the tea’s manufacturer, that’s how the word “trademark” originated.

Coins and Buttons

Another surprising discovery, that people long ago didn’t even bother to mint coins of different values, they just broke them up into smaller values, literally.

Blanket

The different symbols on this blanket served as “secret codes” for underground railway, offering information to fleeing slaves to safety.

The house served different functions in different times. Most interesting to me, it used to be the town’s only public house, serving as both the courtroom and the jail (talk about streamlined process). When I asked how they could hold a court session in such tiny spaces, the guide told me, “oh they held it outside and the entire town watched”.

Guns on Display

With the town of Culpeper changing hands multiple times during the Civil War, Burgandine House wasn’t short of firearm exhibit.

Markings on Gunstock

This gun certainly saw quite a lot of battle. Each small dent on top marked a soldier killed, the two X’s in the middle are for two generals killed.

Speaking of the house’s multitude of functions, its second floor was preserved as an inn, with a few beds lying around.

Beds

Here space was used to maximum as this child bed would be tucked underneath an adult bed during the day. I was shocked to learn from the guide that 4 adults somehow managed to squeeze onto the larger bed in this photo.

Beds
Well, at least the handicapped got to have a more spacious bed.

Here just some highlights of the tour were shown, but the two chatty guides really went through every object in the house in great detail, that when we said goodbye to them, it’s 80 minutes since we stepped into the house.

Shenandoah National Park

After a quick lunch, by the time we entered Shenandoah National Park through Swift Run, it’s 3:20pm, only 4 hours to sunset. So planned to hike a short trail before heading farther South, watch sunset somewhere epic (preferably Humpback Rocks) before reaching our overnight hotel in the town of Waynesboro.

The trail to Hightop, just near the entrance, was a perfect choice. Unfortunately, the small trailhead parking lot was already full, with more cars parked alongside Skyline Drive than in it. So we moved on.

 
 
Park Road

 
Mountains

Along the road, we stopped at a few turnouts and appreciated the scenery of distant mountains, so that we didn’t have to stick behind some slow traffic.

Blackrock Summit

Since the parking lot at Hightop was full, we picked another trail, Blackrock, to hike instead. The parking lot at Blackrock was almost full, but we managed to find a spot.
The trail to Blackrock was only 900m one-way. Although one could proceed farther to Hall Mountain or Trayfoot Mountain, most people made Blackrock their destination.

Here’s GPS tracking:

 
 
Trail

Both Trayfoot Mountain Trail and Appalachian Trail ran in parallel between parking lot and Blackrock. It really didn’t matter which trail one picked as both were wide, flat and well-maintained.

 
Rock Field

As for Blackrock, it’s a tiny hill made of loose and barren rocks, extending for some distance along one of the slopes. Somehow, the rocks didn’t feel blackish to me.

While most visitor stayed on the improved pavement around the rock fields, it’s a short class 1-2 scramble to reach the center and top of it, where we enjoyed panoramic views in invigorating breeze.

Mountains from Blackrock

Distant Brown and Rocky Mountain
Had we have more time before sunset, we would probably hike those mountains instead.

View from Blackrock Summit

40 minutes later, we were back at the parking lot, and continued our journey south.
While enjoying scenery and waiting out some slow traffic ahead at Rip Rap Overlook, we spotted a group of deer in the bushes.

 


Deer

 
Distant Fields

At this time, we changed our plan and decided to do some more hiking before sunset, and we picked Turk Mountain Trail.

Turk Mountain

Flowers

The last of season’s flowers were blooming. Probably because I haven’t been in the wild for a while, I sensed a strong and refreshing fragrance at the beginning of Blackrock trail, which probably came from flowers like this. Unfortunately, my noses quickly got used to it, which I could no longer feel.

 
 
 
Trail

The 2-km one-way trail to Turk Mountain was mostly flat and even like this, albeit a lot narrower.

 
Rocky Trail

Only towards the end did the size of rocks on the trail became larger, starting to require attention.

Field of Rocks

Similar to Blackrock, the summit and slopes of Turk Mountain were made of loose rocks. This is one of such slopes. The trail took a detour around the rock fields and slowly ascended to summit.

40 minutes later, we arrived at an empty summit, having all the rocks and sceneries to ourselves.

Field and Villages

View from Turk Mountain Summit

Field of Rocks

Bucks Elbow Mountain
Located outside the park, so there were sprinkles of residences and array of cell phone towers.

 
Mountains

Hoping to catch sunrise at a roadside overlook along Skyline Drive, we stayed at the summit of Turk Mountain for about 20 minutes before making our way back.

Snail

Mushrooms

Forest

Leaves
Already signs of autumn.

It’s 7:07pm by the time we got back to the parking lot, with about 10 minutes left till sunset. As we drove South, all we were looking for was a turnout facing West with views of setting sun. Unfortunately, the first overlook meeting these criteria was Calf Mountain Overlook, 5 miles away. Despite the best of my driving, we still missed the sunset.

 
Towns and Distant Mountains

But on a different note, the fiery clouds under sunset glow was still gorgeous.

Sunset Glow

After that, we headed out of park, and checked into our overnight hotel in Waynesboro.

Star Gazing

Weather forecast indicated clear skies for the night, which would be ideal for star gazing. So after dinner in our hotel room, we headed out again. This time, our plan was to watch the starry skies somewhere along Blue Ridge Parkway, where there’s least light pollution in the region.

Stars

While the stars were barely visible among city lights of Waynesboro, they were much clearer along Blue Ridge Parkway. We settled at Ravens Roost Overlook and joined a few other groups appreciating the night sky.
It’s just that night temperature was approaching freezing this weekend, and winds were strong (that’s probably what blew away all the clouds), so we didn’t stay out for long.

City Lights under Starry Skies

Stars

Stars

Stars

Sunrise

After missing sunset the previous day for a mere few minutes, we decided to substitute that by rising up early the next morning and watch sunrise instead. This time, we picked Afton Overlook, the closest to the start of Blue Ridge Parkway, set our alarm clocks, and made it on time.

 
Frost on Car

This frost on the windows threaten to derail our sun-watching plan for the second time. Luckily, this morning we rose enough early in advance and I took care of this frost quickly.

Unfortunately, probably because we were still drowsy when we left, that I realized I left my camera at the hotel room. So, I only had my cell phone to capture this spectacular sunrise.

 
Distant Mountains in Sunrise Glow

Sunrise

Watching Sunrise

With freezing temperature and bitter wind, my friend and I soon realized the best place to watch sunrise was from the comfort of our car.

After this morning excursion, we drove back to hotel and headed right back to bed. By the time we were packed and ready to go, it’s 3 hours later.
After hiking two mountain trails for the previous day, we were looking for something different this morning. That’s when Saint Mary Falls trail came across our radar, a 7-km out-and-back trail to a waterfall.

Saint Mary Falls

After driving among Virginia’s beautiful countryside, we were at the trailhead of Saint Mary Falls. A small section of road right before trailhead was unpaved.
It’s a Sunday morning and the trail was teeming with people. We snatched one of the last spots in an overflowing parking lot.
Here’s GPS tracking:

 
 
 
Trail

Flanked by valleys, most of the time the trail was a comfortable stroll in the woods. On another hand, having hiked Shenandoah on the previous day, we felt the trail condition at Saint Mary Falls was certainly not as good as the ones in national park, with more uneven surfaces.

 
Creek

The trail followed a creek upstream. At times, the creek was wide, smooth and approaching, reflecting the forest above and revealing rocks in riverbed below.

 
 
Creek

But most of the time, there were a few rocks lying in the creek, giving it a more masculine appearance.

Fallen Tree on Trail
That took some effort to navigate around.

 
Creek Crossing

Throughout its length the trail made a few creek crossings. At this season the waterflow wasn’t very strong, and the crossing spots all had exposed rocks for people to navigate on. A small issue was that the crossings were poorly marked and thus some crossings could be easily missed, leading people astray.

Muddy Trail
The only muddy spot along the trail that required care navigating through.

Pond

 
Currents

 
 
Creek

At 20 past noon, 75 minutes since we started, we were at Saint Mary Falls.

Cairn before Saint Mary Falls

Saint Mary Falls

Taken from the cross crossing before Saint Mary Falls (above) and an overlook closer to it (below), the two viewing spots of the falls.

It’s possible to get around the waterfall and hike deeper into Saint Mary Wilderness, but like most people, we made the waterfall our destination. We spent about 15 minutes near the waterfall, appreciating its beauty and listening to its raging torrent, before it got crowded and we decided to head back.

 
 
Trail

Creek

Grains of Rock
Sign that one was in a valley.

Butterfly

It’s 2pm by the time we returned to trailhead and finished our lunch. We decided it’s time to head back. However, we thought there was still enough daylight left that we could do another short hike on our way home. This time, we picked Hightop Trail in Shenandoah, one that we missed the previous day.

 
Country Road

Hightop

It’s half past 3 in the afternoon by the time we got to Hightop’s trailhead. Surprisingly, the small parking lot was still full, but with fewer cars parked along the road on the shoulder, we decided that’s the way to go.
Here’s GPS tracking:

 
 
Trail

Like all other trails we hiked this weekend, the trail to Hightop was in deep woods like this. My skin would love this shade from sunshine.

Boulders

 
Flowers

The short 2.3km trail was a great workout, and in 40 minutes, I was at Hightop Overlook.
Just a note that Hightop Overlook was facing west, which was about 100m from where “Hightop” was marked on Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. However, the overlook was right next to an obvious trail with no forks, so it’s impossible to miss.

Fields

Massanutten Mountain
A uniquely shaped ridge in Shenandoah Valley. In winter it’s the only ski resort in the vicinity.

Mountains to the South

View from Hightop

The overlook was made of a few boulders, not very large in size. As for the view, it’s typical Shenandoah view with expansive fields and ranges of mountains. Something that I didn’t regret hiking here for.

Sandy Bottom Overlook
Where the park road wound around a huge slab of rocks.

Sportswood Trail
Where we came from. It’s weird that such a wide and straight avenue was called a trail.

 
Houses in Woods

Mountains

Distant Mountain
Elliott Knob, highest point in Northern Virginia.

After enjoying breeze for about 20 minutes, we headed back down.

 
Forest

 

 
Trail

After that, we drove back home. Unsurprisingly, we encountered construction and traffic jam along I66 again, (didn’t know whether they were related), this time, it’s near Fairfax. It’s certainly not how we’d like to start our weekend, nor to end it.
END

Weekend Trip to Shenandoah, Hiking and Star Gazing by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.