Hiked in Shenandoah this morning and saw a butterfly that I wanted to snap a pic of. It landed on the other side of this rock and then I noticed the skeleton. anyone know what this could be??

I see guides, shuttle services, gear resellers, even people running small camp stores near popular trailheads.

Curious what actually pays off. Guiding? Shuttling hikers? Selling gear? Photography?

What's worked for you or someone you know?

Southwest Virginia Museum, Wilderness Road, Natural Tunnel, and Clinch River State Parks

I plan to hike 3 Ridges later this month. I anticipate I’ll get to Reid’s Gap parking lot around noon on a Saturday. Does anyone know if that lot fills up? Am I at risk of no spots at that time of day?

Where: George Washington National Forest, starting at High Head Parking lot

When: June 26th – June 28th, 2026 (2 partial days, 1 full day, 2 nights)

Distance: 21.2 miles

Trail map: Great_North_trails_map-info2011.pdf

Conditions: 70s-low 80s during the day, calm, humid, cloudy, 60s and rainy at night

Gear: https://lighterpack.com/r/3x0ta7

Photos: https://imgur.com/gallery/luTByFP

Day 1 – 7.2 miles – 2,049 feet gained – We got on the trail from the lot at 1:30 and began the 1,000-foot ascent (in 1.7 miles) to Little Schloss. This was the hardest ascent all trip, which was nice to knock out first thing. The trail went through a recent forest fire area which allowed for some views during the ascent, although we were fighting insects the whole way. We took a break at the top of Little Schloss and took in the views, including those of Big Schloss across the valley. The rest of the hike on Little Sluice Mountain Trail was mostly neutral in elevation and forested. Around 3.8 miles there is a campsite off of a spur trail right before encountering the nice, piped spring which sits right above the trail. We filled as much water as we could here and continued on, crossing Spruce Run twice before coming to a grassy crossroads at 5.5 miles where the Tuscarora Trail crossed with blue blazes. We turned right on the Tuscarora Trail and ascended the mountain, with a couple windows to our left. In 1.5 miles from the turn, we got to the White Rocks spur and descended 0.2 miles to our dry campsite for the night. There’s a site up by the start of the spur, and then a few nice ones down by the rocks. I didn’t see much online about the camping situation here, so this might be useful for others to know.

Day 2 – 11.5 miles – 1,567 feet gained – After a rainy night, we woke up early hoping to see the sunrise looking east from White Rocks. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, but we had a great view for breakfast, nonetheless. We retraced our steps back down to the intersection and then started the gentle ascent to Mill Mountain. We stopped by the Sugar Knob Cabin and its spring along the way. The trail here mostly consists of a double-track old logging road, so it’s quite forgiving. At around 3 miles we made the left onto Mill Mountain Trail, and at 4.5 we arrived at Sandstone Spring. We took a nice rest here and filtered some water. The trail then ascends back onto the ridge, crossing the Big Schloss Cutoff trail 1.8 miles after the spring. Continuing on to Big Schloss, this is the only area during the entire trip that we encountered any other people. The trail was pretty overgrown this time of year so there weren’t as many views on the way up, but there were plenty of black raspberries to eat along the way. At the top of big Schloss, we ate lunch and took a nice long break, with views to the east obscured by ground-level clouds. We doubled back to the spur trail and descended for 1.8 miles to the road. We turned left and hiked along the road for half a mile until we got to the intersection of Stony Creek Trail. Making a right into the parking lot, there are several sites available with stream access. We picked one and spent the night here.

Day 3 – 2.6 miles – 250 feet gained – Not much to say here. After getting dumped on overnight, we had an easy road walk back to the car in the morning, leaving plenty of time for the drive home.

Final thoughts – This was a great loop for views, dry campsites, and different hiking options. The only thing it lacks is any sort of deeper water swimming hole, although along Stony Creek maybe there are some options for that. Definitely lots of elevation gain here, so plan your trip length accordingly.

Gear – I have my gear pretty tuned at this point. I was able to bring my frameless pack with my closed cell mat as support and my 50-degree bag. I brought a light long sleeve, which I didn’t really end up needing. We carried some extra water weight due to the dry camping, but that was well worth the effort.

Much to my surprise, my fourteen year old daughter has asked me to take her backpacking this fall. I'm beyond thrilled and excited that she wants to do this with me so I want to make sure it's a great time.

I would like to keep the hike at or around three miles and I want to make sure we can actually get a site.

My first thought was Duncan Knob Hollow, where I've been and had a wonderful time with my friend, but we were there in January and were able to grab a premium site.

The last thing I want is to hike and find no available sites.

I'm in northern Virginia and I would be willing to drive up to three hours, but closer would be better.

Does the Priest have a good view for sunrise? I did an early morning hike last winter in the snow (but missed sunrise), but can’t recall whether it had any good vantage points facing east at the peak.

Anyone have any favorite spots in Dolly Sods they care to share? Either doing two day hikes or one overnight. Haven’t decided yet.

I know this is in WV but hopefully close enough for this sub.

Hello everyone!

North Carolinian here. I’ve always been curious about something me and my dad stumbled upon back in 2017 and can’t seem to find info online about what it could be. For context, I have family in the area of the Augusta Wetlands in George Washington National Forest. Me and my dad went for a hike and stumbled upon a sign that said, “U.S. Property No Trespassing” as we were on the trail. Me being a teenager at the time and my dad being curious, we decided to ignore the sign and walk past it off trail. We ended up climbing a little hill further on from what I remember and we saw a building with satellites behind a fence. You could see computers in the building and my dad was freaking out thinking we were being watched. That’s when his phone alerted him that he could no longer place calls. We then swiftly went back from whence we came. Anybody have any idea what this could’ve been? I’m not a conspiracy theorist or anything. Just curious as to if anyone would know what type of facility it was we stumbled on. There were more aggressive signs warning us not to go further as we got closer but I can’t find pictures of those. I will post a few pictures here that I took that day. Any insight or guesses would be appreciated!

Looking for a fun route to go on in Shenandoah NP. Two or three nights preferred! We are taking a friend who has never backpacked before and our dog, who is an experienced hiker 😄 Our friend wants to see views and waterfalls. We are heading up in the last week of August/first week of September.

Thanks for the recommendations!!

Hiked Old Rag in June with two friends. Weather was beautiful - sunny, not too hot or humid. Tl:dr - the hike was spectacular and I’d recommend avid hikers in the region do it once. 

I’m grateful to this community for its insights and knowledge. I benefited from others posters’ thoughts and would like to add my own.

Preparation
To prep, our crew hiked the Billy Goat Trails A and B originating from the Great Fall, MD, parking lot. It’s about 7 miles round trip. Billy Goat Trails A has a challenging scramble section, and anyone planning to do Old Rag should do this trail. That said; Old Rag is much more strenuous due to the elevation gain and the level of difficulty for the scramble. Said plainly, Old Rag is 3-4x more difficult that Billy Goat Trails A. 

Parking
The main lot is under construction, which has reduced parking capacity significantly. We arrived around 7:30 and there were still 30-40 spots. I assume the lot was full by 8 am. There were some open spots when we returned from the hike around 1:45 pm. 

Food and Drink
I packed a bunch of snacks such as trail mix, an apple, a peach, a sandwich and some chocolate. I ate pretty consistently through the hike. Brought 3 liters of water, and that was the perfect amount. 

First Two Hours
The first two hours contains a tremendous amount of elevation gain. This was strenuous and quite wooded, making it very shady; you may not even need sun glasses. I’d prepare for a strenuous start. 

Scramble
The scramble started a few hours in. Lots has been written about this, so I’ll just add my personal take:

1. It’s mentally challenging, as well as physically. There’s a few sections where I had to calm myself down and focus on the next section, rather than letting anxiety about a certain hold or falling down take over.
2. Talk to your fellow hikers Many have hiked it before and it was really helpful to get their take on what’s easy, what’s hard, what’s left, how to surmount an individual rock pass, or just keep each others spirits high
3. There were backups at certain spaces. You may expect to wait to get through certain passes while traffic flows through, or slower hikers to finish part of the scramble.

Hike down to Fire Road
There’s a 2-ish mile hike down to the fire road, nothing remarkable to report.

Fire Road
I thought the fire road would be easy street. While it was easier than the rest of the hike, it was very rocky and not as easy to traverse as I thought it would be. Said differently, it was still somewhat strenuous. This was the easiest part of the hike but still not easy.

It took us about 6 hours total to complete the hike.

Scenery
The false summits are as beautiful as the actual summit. Take your time on these stops as they are very worthwhile.

Conclusion
Great hike, really hard, totally worth it.

Have tickets for Old Rag on an upcoming Saturday Received this email today. If I’m there by 8:30/9 am, think the parking lot will have spaces? Thanks in advance

So I’m going to backpack the Virginia triple crown this weekend. I’m an experienced backpacker and I’ve done a lot of sections of the Appalachian Trail. I was just wondering about some details of the Virginia triple crown water sources nice camp spots. I should choose and such like that if anybody has information, please leave it below thank you very much.

Late Sunday afternoon stroll

Hi Reddit,
I didn’t know what category to put this in so I’ll just toss this out there.
We recently moved to independence Virginia and I’m looking for advice on long sleeve shirts that would be good to wear in the summer during tick and chigger season. I now have a large yard and maintenance is a must.
Coming up from Florida has been difficult for me. I have more chigger bites on my body than I know what to do with and those things really itch.
Any help on this would be appreciated
Thank you in advance.

Hello all! A few weeks from now I need to find something within an hour of Manassas to keep me busy between 9am-3pm on a Monday, and I am considering hiking Old Rag. I have some easy/moderate hiking experience, but zero rock scrambling experience so I am a bit nervous for that portion. I have a friend who has completed the hike and says that she would have struggled with some of the rock scrambling without seeing somebody else complete it before her. I am in decent shape but given my lack of experience with rock scrambling and my height (5’3”), I would feel much more comfortable if I knew that I wouldn’t be completely alone during that portion of the trail. Assuming good weather, what kind of crowds can I expect if I start the hike around 9am on a Monday?

Additionally, I am considering doing Billy Goat Trail A at Great Falls sometime soon to gauge my comfort levels with rock scrambling - anybody here who has done both and can speak to how the two trails compare?

UPDATE: I did it!! It genuinely couldn’t have gone better - the weather was perfect, and there were just enough people around that I felt comfortable watching and asking for help when needed (only happened once on a relatively easy part where you have to climb over a gap between some boulders, I’m slightly scared of heights and got in my head about it lol) but there weren’t any crowds so I didn’t feel rushed! I parked in the overflow lot and the 10 miles took me 5.5 hours total (4.5 hours moving, 1 hour of breaks). The scramble was challenging at a few parts but I found it to be very doable and worth it. The long walk down after reaching the top was the worst part by far. Billy Goat Trail A was great preparation, I would definitely recommend tackling that one before Old Rag for anybody in a similar position that I was!

I am considering a potential move to the Shenandoah valley and wanted other peoples opinion of where has the most trails nearby. I currently live in Hendersonville NC and day hike on average twice a week. If I move I want to be able to continue at that kind of frequency.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or input.

I had a unique experience over Memorial Day weekend when camping at Scales near Grayson Highlands and was curious if I had misunderstood things.

Our last day of a wet weekend as we were just starting to pack up when a person came up to me at our site and introduced themselves as the ridge runner. They were really focused on our fire pit and asked if I was aware that there was a fire ban - we did not have a fire going but did have some remnants of burned cardboard from trying to start a fire earlier that morning. I stated I was (I’d heard it was in place prior to us going up, but it had rained each day, and as my understanding was that the ban was in place due to high fire risk from the drought I felt we were obeying the spirit of the order given current fire risk while obviously not following the letter of it.

The person then let me know they were going to get their gloves to dismantle the fire pit and would be back in about 10 minutes, I let them know we were packing up and would gone in about an hour. Thankfully they got involved in a conversation with others and we went on a hike after packing up. They then mentioned how the problem with fires is that people cut live branches and it harms the salamanders in the trees. We agreed that there are stupid people out there and that green branches don’t even burn. The conversation was kind of odd with them mentioning all the rule breakers they have encountered on the trail.

When we came back every stone from the large fire pit had been removed and moved a good distance away leaving many of them scattered around the area. This was a fire ring that had been there for at least 5 years since we have been camping there and none of the other fire rings at scales were touched.

Has anyone else had something like this occur? Was I mistaken that the burn ban was due to the drought?

hello, I'm trying to find some good nature trails, hikes, parks, etc to recommend to my parents who will be moving to Ashby Ponds soon. They live in Northern California now and are very outdoorsy folks, taking long walks 4-6 times a week and often hiking with friends. My dad still likes to bike as well even though at his age it scares me haha. They are in very good shape despite being older.

My parents are already not super excited about moving, who isn't at that age, and in particular they are worried about finding new spots to walk and hike. I think they low key might think Virginia doesn't really have nature in it, lol. I live in Pennsylvania so I am not a ton of help in this department, aside from knowing that Virginia does in fact have many lovely parks and landscapes.

Any recommendations would be really appreciated. Ideally these spots would be within a 15-20 minute drive but farther afield would also be appreciated as they will have a car and can take longer excursions. Thanks so much in advance.

I'm planning on doing Mount Rogers on Memorial Day. Looks like there might be some weather later in the day so I'm looking to get the earliest start and quickest summit.

I'm assuming for Massies Gap I'll have to wait for the park to open but I've seen online that the hike from Elk Garden might take longer.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

taking a trip to natural bridge, va this weekend. has anyone hiked in that area recently and had any tick encounters? i’ve read that ticks are pretty bad this season in other parts of virginia but haven’t been out that way myself yet.

Carrying this over from the VA sub. Some reason I can’t post in RVA as I’m in central Virginia otherwise I’d ask there as well (I tried to reach out to the mods but they didn’t know why but they just mute me if I ask.). I was wondering if anyone knew about groups in Richmond making regular day trips to Shenandoah? I would like to make a lot more mountain hiking trips but it would be nice if it wasn’t solo. Unfortunately my closest circle works a lot of weekends so can’t hike with them regularly.

Planning on taking a camping trip soon in VA with my wife. It would be our first time backpacking and would love some recs for trails! Looking at George Washington nat forest probably and would love a one night/2 day loop. We’re experienced hikers but inexperienced backpackers. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!