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Enjoy all the natural beauty that Mount Rogers National Recreation Area has to offer with the first comprehensive guide to this reserve in southwestern Virginia. With complete descriptions and condensed trail lists, it's easy to pick among scenic, remote, easy, or challenging trails. Waterway descriptions, tips for fly and spin-cast fishing, and recommended scenic drives are also included.

View from Fairwood Valley

Bearpen Trail

Type Foot, horse

Difficulty Moderate

Length 1.2 miles

Use Moderate

Condition Good

Highlights Great views, outcrops

Connections Scales Trail, Appalachian Trail, Big Wilson Creek Trail

This path traverses the mostly open slopes of Stone Mountain. Along the way are significant vistas of Pine Mountain and much more high country. Leave the Scales Trail near Scales, and head south onto an open meadow, where rounded stone outcrops make mini vista points of their own. The Bearpen Trail then skirts a high elevation bog and descends in a mix of trees, brush and meadows while forming the boundary of the Little Wilson Creek Wilderness. The path ends at the junction with the Big Wilson Creek Trail. The trail once continued to a gap between First Peak and Second Peak, but the railroad grade that the trail followed has devolved into an virtually impassable muddy mess.

Start the Bearpen Trail by veering left off the Scales Trail, .5 mile from Scales. Ascend among rhododendron while traversing several rills flowing off Stone Mountain to the left. Keep climbing into maple woodland. Leave the woodland for the open country at .2 mile. Keep alongside a wooden fence. There are far reaching vistas to the west across the East Fork Wilson Creek valley, including the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail. Begin to swing left, easterly, tracing the orange blazed wooden poles. Emerge onto a grassy clearing broken with a rounded stone outcrop that resembles a monument. An evergreen forest stands to the right of the grassy flat. At .5 mile, span a low wooden bridge that drains a high elevation bog to the left.

Easily cruise through the rest of the meadow before twisting down into a hodge-podge of brush and trees. Pass through a gate. The trail is now the northern boundary of the Little Wilson Creek Wilderness. Intersect the Appalachian Trail at .9 mile. It leads left 6.1 miles to Fairwood Valley and right 10.9 miles to Elk Garden. On the Bearpen Trail, pick up and follow a railroad grade. Keep forward on the Bearpen Trail, now descending in deep woods. Wind around a muddy part of the grade that is hemmed in by a soil berm. Rejoin the grade before intersecting the Big Wilson Creek Trail at 1.2 miles. From here the Big Wilson Trail leads right, .8 miles to the Kabel Trail and 2.1 miles to Seed Orchard Road Trail at Grayson Highlands State Park. A sign here states, “Deep Mud, Travel Not Recommended.” This is the abandoned portion of the Bearpen Trail. It makes a very muddy track to a gap between First Peak and Second Peak. Do not proceed further on the Bearpen Trail! To reach the First Peak Trail, take the Big Wilson Creek Trail to the Kabel Trail, which then intersects the First Peak Trail.

Access

The Bearpen Trail is an interior trail. It can be reached by traveling .5 miles on the Scales Trail from Scales.

Hiking Loop

Name Feathercamp Loop

Trails Used Beech Grove Trail, Iron Mountain Trail, Feathercamp Trail, Appalachian Trail

Difficulty Moderate

Length 6.7 miles

Highlights Varied forests

This loop leaves the Whitetop Laurel Valley on the Beech Grove Trail up to the crest of the Iron Mountains. The loop then cruises the ridgeline to Feathercamp Branch and descends down the intimate stream valley to intersect the Appalachian Trail. Take the AT back to the Beech Grove Trail and return to the parking area. Along the way, enjoy streamside woods and open pine oak stands atop Feathercamp Ridge. The climbs are never overly steep or long.

Fishing Stream

Name Lewis Fork

Stream Size Small

Fishing Pressure Light to moderate

Fishing Quality Good

USGS Quads Whitetop Mountain

Flowing off the slopes of Mount Rogers in the Lewis Fork Wilderness, this nifty little trout stream offers scenic angling. Brook trout inhabit the steep pool/fall environment. Anglers here will be seeking an attractive fishing environment that ranges between 3,600 and 4,500 feet, as well as getting a few fish on the line. Fishing pressure decreases away from VA 603.

Access

Foot power is the only means of reaching this rivulet. The Lewis Fork Trail, starting on VA 603, climbs along the stream banks for a mile. The upper stretches of Lewis Fork can be reached via the Cliffside Trail.

And there’s more!