Saturday, September 13, 2008

Shenandoah - Overall Run Falls

Here is a little post from a weekend (well an afternoon) get away to the mountains.
Several times I have been thinking about going to this particular location but never really made it.
In the process however I have found other places in the Shenandoah that are very interesting but for now here is the post from my hike to Overall run falls.

At the bottom I have included additional information with links to the official web site and maps for the area (Mathews arm area).

Just after entering the park at Thornton gap entrance I was heading north and stopped at the first overlook and took a short walk. At that very short walk I found some interesting details and a little wild life observing what I was doing...









Also from the first overlook I took a photo overlooking the mountains.



I got to the parking lot at milepost 21 (roughly) and after parking in the handicapped parking spot (hmm yeah well didn't see it until I was leaving) I started my walk towards the falls.
At the start of the trail there were some pretty flowers out. They were kind of tall so they were moving quite a bit. But I did get a photo of them despite all the movement.



So I started down the trail that for some reason (yeah I gotta learn to read the map and distances before leaving home) seemed to go on and on and on and on...



So I got to the first section of the falls but figured it didn't look right. Had to keep moving and finally I could hear the falls down below somewhere. Only thing was... how in the world would I get there... Of course I had to climb down there and once down here is the look up at the "trail".



This wasn't really what I had in mind when reading about the falls. But here is a few photos from my destination at the kind of difficult to get to section...









Climbing back up the "trail" I noticed some of the rocks were completely covered and all green. There is just something about nature like this. On one hand it looks all soft and on the other hand it's hmmm rock solid...


Heading back up the trail I returned to the first location I passed the first time around. Here there were more of a fall and somewhat more interesting :-)






Heading on back to the truck I got a few photos on the way. Even though I have to admit I didn't get as many as usual since this was uphill and on a slightly more difficult trail than usual and well it was looooooong...


Just a little bare rock. I like it better if there was a water fall but it's pretty cool anyway ;-)


Here is a section of the trail with stairs... now it looks like it would make the walk soo much easier but after walking several miles all I wanted was to see the truck so I could be driving rather than walking...


Almost there... Here is a photo from the last stretch which was on the Appalachian trail



At trails end and very tired... I figured I could be lucky enough to get a photo of the setting sun... Turns out the view was a little hazy...



Additional information:
Shenandoah park information, Mathews arm area map, Shenandoah hiking maps

2 comments:

ForestWander said...

We are hopefully going to hike these falls this year and bring back some pictures.

Pdyrholm said...

It's a good hike. A bit longer than what I would prefer (but I am also favoring taking photos over the hike).
It is pretty though with many good spots.