Big Devils Stairs and Big Duke

That is my hiking buddy pictured above. Yesterday we spent a few hours in Shenandoah National Park hiking and doing some location scouting. When I was a Boy Scout we used to hike Big Devils Stairs. Back then we would enter the park from the base of the mountain and hike up the canyon. It was pretty much a rock scramble and hiking up alongside a stream and waterfall.

Entering from the base of the mountain is no longer permitted, it’s rumored that hikers were not respectful of the private property at the base of the mountain and access was denied. I also read somewhere that the trail was damaged a few times due to flooding during heavy rain and it was decided that the trail would be rerouted.

So Duke and I started at the top of the mountain and hiked down to the overlook shown above. The trail stays in the forest until you arrive at the top of the canyon pictured above. Not many photo ops along the way, but we had great time and I grabbed the abstract below on the way out of the park.