Day 2 of May 2022 Virginia Trip, Hiking Angel’s Rest

The second day of my 2022 Memorial Day weekend trip. After waking up in Blacksburg, I would try out more hiking trails in the towns nearby, most notably Angel’s Rest Trail in Pearisburg.

After some unexpected delays the previous day (mostly due to mud on the hiking trail), I only reached my overnight hotel in Blacksburg at 10pm. So I took a good night’s rest, and set off at a reasonably late 11am this morning. After grabbing some breakfast, I first set off for Mountain Lake in Jefferson National Forest, with a short hike to Bald Knob.

After that, I took Virginia State Route 700 up into the mountains. The twisty mountain road was great fun to drive, with the following dashcam video.

Observation Deck along SR 700

Along the way I made a brief stop on a roadside observation deck, with views of rolling mountains.

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Fields and Mountains

Distant Mountains

Distant Mountains

Distant Mountains

Then, I continued towards Mountain Lake, which featured a resort hotel and gift shops. At the intersection of VA700 and VA613, there was a gravel field for day-use parking for free.

Bald Knob

From the parking lot, Bald Knob was a short 700m stroll away, with 140m elevation gain. The trail was in great condition, but sort of steep. Alternatively, one could use the longer Bald Knob Tower Road for a more gradual ascent.

Click here to display photos of the trail to Bald Knob.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Bald Knob was made of a series of boulders that were slightly higher than the surrounding trees, offering views of surrounding mountains and villages. It’s just like Tinker Cliffs that I visited the previous day, without the steep dropoff.

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Mountains from Bald Knob

Mountains from Bald Knob

Fields and Mountains from Bald Knob

Fields and Mountains from Bald Knob

Doe Mountain
Beyond which were Cascades Falls, a popular site in Jefferson National Forest.

Overlooking Bald Knob

In line with my tradition, I commemorated the moment with a drone video:

2x playback speed, 22 seconds, 2160p60fps, 54MB file size.

And I also took a brief video of my drone flying through the valleys.

2x reversed playback speed, 28 seconds, 2160p60fps, 15Mbps/77MB for H265, 17Mbps/85MB for H264.

After I got back to my vehicle, I set off for Pearisburg. But along the way, I made a stop at Pembroke Boat Landing first. It’s a public dock where New River made a hairpin turn, with some exposed rocks on the opposite side making for a perfect backdrop.

Pembroke Boat Landing

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New River

Cliff along New River

Cliffs along New River

New River

New River

In addition, I used my drone for a tour along the New River. With yesterday’s heavy rain, the river’s flow was murky and strong.

After that, I set off for Angel’s Rest Trail.

Angel’s Rest Trail

This was a relatively popular section of the Appalachian Trail outside Pearisburg, with two overlooks along the way. Its upper trailhead was along Virginia Route 793, a country road that saw few traffic, about 80m west of the Appalachian Trail crossing. The small roadside turnout had space for about 3-4 vehicles, which was amazingly empty by the time I arrived. From this trailhead, Angel’s Rest and Pearis Mountain (the two overlooks) was an 8km out-and-back with 540m elevation gain. If this parking lot was full, there was additional parking along Virginia Route 100, which would add about 2km of distance each way.

After some warmup, I started my hike at 2:45pm.

Most of the initial hike was in dense forest, with canopies of soaring trees, just like yesterday on Tinker Cliffs Trail.

Click here to display photos of the trail.

Trail

Trail

Trail

Trail

Creek

Trail

Trail

Forest

Trail

Trail

Unfortunately, just like yesterday, I suffered greatly from the mud condition along the trail. In particular, the few switchbacks about 1km from trailhead was muddy as hell (even worse than the worst of mud that I encountered yesterday at Tinker Cliffs Trail). Despite it’s only along a small portion of the trail, the intensity of such mud certainly took away much of the enjoyment.

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Muddy Trail

Muddy Trail

Muddy Trail

Muddy Trail

Muddy Trail

Muddy Trail

Finally, I reached Angel’s Rest at 4pm, which was some rocks at the end of a tunnel of flowers, with views to the north, of the winding New River and the numerous towns it crisscrossed.

I wasn’t too content with experiences earlier today, of having to tread through the unpleasant mud, of having to do that again on my return trip. So the views in front, although beautiful, felt at the same time distant, as if the negative experiences were an invisible barrier between us. In the end, Angel’s Rest was a small opening in the trees, a peephole, as if not designed for the full immersion into the sceneries ahead.

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Towns and Mountains from Angel’s Rest

Towns and Mountains from Angel’s Rest
Towards the direction of Bald Knob where I was earlier today.

Towns and Mountains from Angel’s Rest

Celanese Corporation Factory

Cliffs along New River

Towns and Mountains from Angel’s Rest

New River

After about 35 minutes at Angel’s Rest, I continued on to Pearis Mountain Overlook, which was 1km away on a mostly flat trail. To cheer me up, this section of the trail was lined with a dazzling display of wildflowers in bloom.

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Trail
Leading to Angel’s Rest, like a tunnel of flowers.

Trail
A short uphill section, lined by boulders from Angel’s Rest, before the trail flattened out.

Trail
Between Angel’s Rest and the viewpoint, the trail was lined with flowers.

Trail
Between Angel’s Rest and the viewpoint, the trail was lined with flowers.

Trail
There were also patches of flowers below Angel’s Rest.

Trail
There were also patches of flowers below Angel’s Rest.

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Flowers

Fields and Mountains

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers

Flowers on Ground

Budding Flowers

Finally, I reached Pearis Mountain Overlook in about 15 minutes. The overlook wasn’t marked, but it was right next to the trail with open views towards the east, that’s impossible to miss. It’s about 300 meters short of “Pearis Mountain” on OpenStreetMap though.

Here it’s a different view towards the east, where small villages and farmlands replaced the industrial complex as seen from Angel’s Rest. Also missing in view was the winding New River (thus in my opinion it’s less exciting). On the good side, the views here were less obstructed. In the afternoon, the overlook was in the shade, and the villages were in the light, making it great conditions for photography.

Click here to display photos from Pearis Mountain.

Overlook on Pearis Mountain

Fields and Mountains

Fields and Mountains

Fields and Mountains

Mountains

Village

Ranch

I spent about 20 minutes at Pearis Mountain Overlook, before heading back down to the trailhead. After going through the misery of muddy trail, I was back in my car at 6:40pm, spending just shy of 4 hours on the hike.

After that, I made my way to the town of Wytheville where I would be spending the night, and called it a day.

END

Day 2 of May 2022 Virginia Trip, Hiking Angel’s Rest by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.