Lower Doyles River Falls & Back to the Top
Blue Ridge Trip '24 #11
Afton, VA - Tue, 3 Sep 2024. 3:30pm
Today we're hiking the Doyles River Falls trail, an "upside down" trail where we started at the top, at around 3,000' elevation, hiked down past the falls, and then back up to the top. In part 1 of this hike I shared photos from a small unnamed falls and Upper Doyles Falls. Not far below the upper falls was Lower Doyles Falls.
Upper Doyles Falls was nice but only about 30' tall. Lower Doyles Falls is more than twice that, at over 60' tall. The photo above doesn't quite show all of it. (It drops in several cascades such that a photo showing the full height loses a lot of detail.) But what this photo does show is what I sat next to. That's right: I'm not just taking a photo from a viewing platform some tens of feet away. I'm sitting right here, with my camera balanced sideways on my knee.
We rested here at the lower falls for a while. ...Resting not so much to calm aching muscles as to get ready for the nearly 1,200' ascent back to the trailhead.
We estimated it'd take us 2 hours to get back to the top, maybe a smidge more if we started flagging. We actually made it in 1:40. I'm happy with myself for coming in under time. Though maybe I'll be wrecked tonight. I'll see.
Afton, VA - Tue, 3 Sep 2024. 3:30pm
Today we're hiking the Doyles River Falls trail, an "upside down" trail where we started at the top, at around 3,000' elevation, hiked down past the falls, and then back up to the top. In part 1 of this hike I shared photos from a small unnamed falls and Upper Doyles Falls. Not far below the upper falls was Lower Doyles Falls.
Upper Doyles Falls was nice but only about 30' tall. Lower Doyles Falls is more than twice that, at over 60' tall. The photo above doesn't quite show all of it. (It drops in several cascades such that a photo showing the full height loses a lot of detail.) But what this photo does show is what I sat next to. That's right: I'm not just taking a photo from a viewing platform some tens of feet away. I'm sitting right here, with my camera balanced sideways on my knee.
We rested here at the lower falls for a while. ...Resting not so much to calm aching muscles as to get ready for the nearly 1,200' ascent back to the trailhead.
We estimated it'd take us 2 hours to get back to the top, maybe a smidge more if we started flagging. We actually made it in 1:40. I'm happy with myself for coming in under time. Though maybe I'll be wrecked tonight. I'll see.