Section Hikes of 2016: Dolly Sods Wilderness

Tuesday, October 25, 2016:

These days, my months are split pretty evenly between my home in Baltimore, my family in Kentucky, and various hiking and backpacking venues. After researching some hiking destinations to break up the drive through West Virginia, I stumbled upon the Dolly Sods Wilderness nestled within the Monongahela National Forest. Even though it is a couple hours drive time off my direct route, I decided to spend a few days there in late October on a solo loop hike.

I'd heard this was a very popular spot, so I arrived on Tuesday to avoid the crowds and pretty much had the place to myself for a few days. The wilderness area is isolated and not so easy to get to on narrow gravel roads for the last five miles up a mountainside. I had just a couple hours to hike that first evening, so I hustled westward to reach the ridge line overlooking the Canaan Valley.

Hiked a few miles to the ridge, just in time for sunset!

This would be a quick 21-mile loop hike starting and ending from the trail head parking area for the Bear Rocks Trail, and circling the wilderness area in a counter-clockwise fashion.

My route, more or less.

I spent two cold nights camping along the way, but the crisp autumn days were ideal for hiking. It's a beautiful area with some history of homesteading, logging, wildfires, and even ballistic testing back in the day.

I didn't see any.

The hike features lots of open meadows and interesting sandstone cliffs. It's quite windy in the open areas because of elevations up to 4700 feet.

I'm looking forward to returning to Dolly Sods again one day to explore a bit more. Here's a quick video with some of the history and scenery. Happy Trails!