Hiking at Devil's Marbleyard

With the weather becoming more and more beautiful, we got a huge itch to get outside and go hiking for a weekend. We really wanted to go somewhere, close, but also where we had never been before. In late March, we decided to go to Devil's Marbleyard near Natural Bridge, VA. We left Blacksburg around 11am on Saturday, got there around 12 and started up. It was great weather on Saturday, high 50s/low 60s and sunny. We did the loop that hooks up to the Appalachian Trail (AT), and then back around to where we parked. It was great!

When we got there on Saturday around lunch time, we were shocked at how crowded it was. It's only about a mile to the Marbleyard, which made sense of the crowd that consisted of a bunch of day hikers just going to the Marbleyard and back. It turns out, Devil's Marbleyard: Liberty University (and other area colleges):: The Cascades: Virginia Tech and Radford. (Remember taking the hated SATs and the famous analogies?) There were a couple groups of boy scouts, and quite a few college students just hiking up the first mile and back.

It was uphill to the Marbleyard, and a little tiring, but awesome at the top. The Devil's Marbleyard was just a huge hill of boulders and rock. Climbing over all the rock to the top provided for a great view. Plus, with all the rock, it was a good place to sit, have a picnic, eat a snack, and just enjoy the view for awhile.

After taking pictures, we threw our packs back on and headed up the trail. The crowd was gone, and the trail was quiet and free. Once we reached the fork, we headed down the AT to see the "helicopter pad." Actually, it was a real helicopter pad at one point. Apparently there was a forest fire on the ridge, and they cleared an area for the helicopters to land. Once we reached it, it was an incredible 360 view of two valleys (and I think one was the Shenandoah). It looked like it could be a great campsite, too, at least in the summer when the wind wouldn't freeze you to death. I was already pretty tired once we got to the helicopter pad...

Then we headed back down to hook back up to the other trail and finish the loop. We camped at a great site where the AT met the Gunter Ridge Trail. Thank goodness for fires and warm sleeping bags, it got really cold that night especially with the wind chill.

Waking up in a tent, dreading everything outside of your cozy sleeping bag is probably my least favorite part of camping, specifically when the weather isn't inviting. We woke up to rain, fog and 30/40 degree weather. We didn't really have much cold weather gear. As quick as possible, we made eggs, tea, and english muffins (yes, the most first class camping breakfast we have had thus far in our marriage), packed up the tent, and headed out. For the first half of the hike back, we were pretty much in a cloud. Once we started going down, it got warmer and the rain let up some. By the time we reached our car, it was pretty clear, around 11:30am.

It was really fun, and really sparked the hiking bug in us. I really loved it, and it was a good distance, too, about 5.5 miles on Saturday, and then about 6 miles on Sunday. Hopefully we can get out this summer and try some new hikes in our area. Maybe this is overly ambitious, but I want to try all the hikes listed in western Virginia on Hiking Upward here. Living in such a beautiful area, we have to take advantage of it while we can.