Day 3 of 2021 Memorial Day Weekend, Dragon’s Tooth

Third day of 2021 Memorial Day weekend. We hiked to Dragon’s Tooth, a giant near-vertical rock along Appalachian Trail that’s also part of Virginia Triple Crown.

Dragon’s Tooth

While yesterday’s McAfee Knob Trail was mostly level and suitable for people of various fitness levels, Dragon’s Tooth Trail measured 3.6km one-way, the last 1.2km of which involved some steep rocky terrains that required entry-level scrambling (I would rate that as YDS class 1.9). Dragon’s Tooth, a near-vertical rock at the trail’s end, would take some serious scrambling (I would rate that as YDS class 3) to surmount. While it’s more demanding, the process of hiking was certainly more rewarding for those up to the challenge.

After checking out of hotel, we reached the trailhead parking lot just past 10am. Probably due to its technical difficulty keeping some people at bay, parking was much easier to find at Dragon’s Tooth. Soon after that, we set off on the trail.
Here’s GPS tracking:

The first part of the trail was on a gentle incline, mostly level and easy to tackle (photos below). Probably because it followed a creek for some distance, I occasionally ran into a few bugs which was the only downside.
In addition, there were a few creek crossings, with enough exposed rocks to step on and keep one’s feet dry.

Click here to display photos of the trail.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Mountain Laurel

2.3km from trailhead, the trail joined Appalachian Trail at an improvised campsite, where we took some rest.

Tree

A few trunks that forked at ground level, at the intersection of Appalachian Trail and Dragon’s Tooth Trail. There weren’t many good places to rest along the trail, except this one, that we used it for rests both ways.

After that, the trail picked up technical difficulty (photos below). Starting from simple stairs (p1-p3) to more technical sections that required some scrambling (p4-p6), that’s also the most rewarding.

Click here to display photos of the trail.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail
Here’s my friend tackling a more technical section.

Trail

Trail

Rock Stabilization

Piece of metal stuck in the ground so that rocks wouldn’t roll. There were a few signs of improvements along this section of Appalachian Trail, making the entry-level rock scrambling more friendly to general masses.

Finally, 1.5 hours after we left the parking lot, we were at Dragon’s Tooth.

Dragon’s Tooth
A rocky outcrop rising above the ground resembling the shape of a giant tooth.

After that, someone playful as us would certainly love to find our way up this rock.

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Route up Dragon’s Tooth

To climb on Dragon’s Tooth one should first reach the back of it (from the previous photo). There was a rock (red) wedged between two cliffs. One should choose to either climb after ducking through that rock (blue) or before it (green). Both routes required one to bridge between two cliffs, perhaps more on the green route. I would rate both routes as YDS class 3.

Route up Dragon’s Tooth
Viewed from a slightly different angle.

View of Fields through Gaps in Rock

Taken from the same spot as the previous photo. A preview of the views on top while one waited for descending climbers to come through.

People Resting on Nearby Rock
I had no clue how they made it up there.

After climbing above the previous cliffs, one would reach an open area on Dragon’s Tooth measuring approximately 5m*1m that’s mostly level. We took some rest there, soaking in the views of distant mountain ranges and farmland below.

View from Dragon’s Tooth to the West

 

Field and Mountain Ranges

Unfortunately, the aforementioned spot, while relatively safe, wasn’t taller than the trees so there weren’t any views to the east. One could opt to climb about 5 meters along a narrow incline to the top of Dragon’s Tooth, with 360-degree views. It’s just that the ridge was too narrow for me to carry a phone to take any photos.

After about 30 minutes on top of Dragon’s Tooth, some other climbers were preparing to join us, so we decided to start heading back, leaving the space to them.

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Forest

Forest

Forest

Forest

After that, we made it back to the parking lot at 1:40pm. A bit disappointing that we didn’t have time to attempt Tinker Cliffs, the last of Virginia’s Triple Crown.
Anyway, we headed downtown for a late lunch celebrating this weekend of adventure, before joining the traffic along I81 heading back to Washington DC.
END

Day 3 of 2021 Memorial Day Weekend, Dragon’s Tooth by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.