The Frazier Discovery Tour: An Easy SNP Day Hike

Like millions of our friends and neighbors in the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend, once the sun was out so boldly on Saturday – with temperatures rising into the 80’s – we were desperate to get out for some exercise. My sister was visiting so we went up to Shenandoah National Park.


We decided we should do a short hike, and picked the Frazier Discovery Trail near the Loft Mountain Wayside. This little trail is 1.4 miles long and has an altitude change of 455 feet. It has some great points of interest – I think it is one of the most charming trails in the Park, and it is definitely one that young families should take in with the kids.

Along the ridge of the trail, there is a progression from old pastures from one of the legacy farms that were up here on these hills before the Park came into existence, through a maturing second-growth forest, then a ridge with a view, then back through an older forest to the starting point. Going in the counter-clockwise direction we chose for our route leads you to a natural amphitheatre of overhanging rocks when you have descended about half-way back down – it’s a place where I always imagine early Americans taking shelter from a summer storm.

The hike takes at most 2 hours, and the view from the mountain top makes it very worthwhile.

As part of my review for this post, I wanted to note a new source for trail information in the Park – the Heatwole guide, which has been updated and is now indexed on the web at http://www.guidetosnp.com/web/ . I’ve used this guide over the years for research on prospective trails and was very happy to see it is finally published. I’ll have a future post on it, but wanted to get the link up here early.

One other thing to add, following up on advisories I’ve already seen on my fellow outdoorsy bloggers’ sites – the ticks are out! Read up and take the precautions. We did not encounter deer ticks on this hike, but we did find one conventional pest hitching a ride with us once we got back to the car.