Old Rag Mountain

I spent my Saturday stressing my body like I haven’t in some time. I hiked/climbed Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park, VA., traversing a total of 4800 vertical feet (up and down.) If that doesn’t whip you into shape I don’t know what will.

The base of Old Rag Mountain is a dense hardwood forest of oaks, hickories and maples, however these trees are not native to the mountain, prior to its formation as a National Park in 1935 the lower valleys and hollows were farm land covered in pastures and corn fields.


We entered the park and began our climb up the mountain at about 1300 hours; two hours behind schedule thanks to some seriously heavy traffic and a wrong turn that put us on the backside of the park instead of the main trailhead side. Hiking up the trail we traversed the switchbacks for almost the entire 2400 feet in elevation and 3.3 miles in trail length, until we broke out of the tree line and came to the rock scramble. The final 300 – 400, feet of elevation, traversing 1 mile of trail is a scramble up, over and through some of the most amazing rock formations on the East Coast, but once you achieve the summit you are rewarded with some of the most amazing views ever.


We reached the summit about 1600 hours and after spending some time crawling around on the wind shaped boulders we knew it was time to get going, traversing the rock scramble in the dark would be deadly. With Skyline Drive to the West and nothing but valley to the East the views are unfettered and immense, as our youngest hiker, 12 year old Jake said, “I really feel small up here; the world is so big.”

With the sunlight fast departing we took off back down the mountain, and while the trail continues on in a loop back to the car park we went back the way we came, if for no other reason than the scenery we encountered on the way up. Hiking is fun, walking along a dirt road is a road march; we came to hike not march.

Working our way back down we made it about half way down through the switchbacks before the sun set at 1830 hours, and as flashlights and headlamps came out and went on we hiked down the mountain, as the darkness enveloped us the forest sounds came alive as animals came out of their daytime hiding spots and began once again foraging for food.

When the wind came back we could follow its arrival as it jumped from tree to tree dancing among the leaves roaring up the draw towards us and then on past to the top of the ridge. The streams ran wild and the gurgling of the water sounded like a great water fall in the dark as we cautiously picked our way down the trail and into the car park.

Ed Note: Blogger is not allowing me to post more pics for some reason so more will have to follow.