Monday, March 14, 2011

Dolly Sods Wilderness

I just spent the last week exploring the mountains of West Virginia...and I had a blast!  I'd been wanting to explore the Dolly Sods area for a while now, and it turned out to be even more spectacular than I had hoped...



We drove up to Forest Service Road 75 via Dolly Sods Road off Highway 55 between Seneca Rocks and Petersburg, WV.  The further we drove up the mountain, the deeper the snow became.  The truck even got stuck at one point and we had to use a shovel and some spruce branches to get out.


We parked at the gate on FS 75 and began our day hike into the Dolly Sods Scenic Area.  This is the map that is posted at the trailhead.


We decided to follow FS 75, until we reached the Wildlife Trail marker.  From there we hiked Wildlife Trail to its intersection with Rohrbaugh Trail, which eventually took us back to FS 75.

There were lots of cools things to see and explore along the trail.  Here are a couple of pictures...



As we hiked deeper into the woods, we came to another scenic overlook that was absolutely spectacular.  This is the view from Rohrbaugh Trail looking across the deep valley where Red Creek flows...


From the overlook, the trail transitions to an area of giant spruce trees and mountain laurel...


This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trail.  The trees are amazing...enveloping you in a canopy of green...even in the dead of winter...

The hike took us about 5 hours to complete.  The wet snow slowed us down a little, but it was also difficult to follow the trail, because there are very few markings.  I would definitely suggest bringing a GPS if you plan to hike deep into the Dolly Sods Wilderness.  It's an amazing place to visit...you won't be disappointed!

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