Return to Seneca Rocks: an Easy Day Hike

A few weeks ago, the day after my hiking group did our day hike in Dolly Sods Wilderness, we made a stop at Seneca Rocks in West Virginia.  There's a blog post at http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/09/west-virginia-weekend-final-post.html.  On Saturday, I talked Mary into a drive over there after our farmers' market visit and brunch at Main Street Bakery.

The drive is between 90 minutes and two hours each way from Stanley, via H-burg and US 33.  It is scenic in parts, and the highway is a mountain road crossing Appalachian summits (all less than 4,000 feet) four or five times before you get to Seneca Rocks.  There are a couple of little tourist attractions, restaurants and such, at the base of the rocks, and there are also climbing schools here, which was pretty interesting to check out.

After we grabbed lunch, we went over to the park to check things out.  One of the reasons I wanted to come back here was that I wanted to take the foot path up to the observation platform, and I had learned during the last trip that it will close for reconstruction during October and be closed for up to a year - so time was of the essence.

This path climbs between 750 and 900 feet (the resources all state different altitudes for the path!) and is about three miles round trip.  So it is similar to many SNP day hikes in that regard; although the layout of this one, with switchbacks and steps, make it somewhat easier despite the steepness.  At the end there is an ample viewing platform (there were two parties of five on it when we got there) - and the trail is well travelled, very crowded while we were there mid afternoon.

I have a couple of photos, again of the rocks from the parking lot, of a view you catch of the stone ridge on the way up, the ridge at the top, and the stream that you cross twice from the visitor center before you get to the trailhead.  Apparently this is a popular trout stream, with trails alongside managed by WV Trout Unlimited, although that pesky invasive algae (I forget the name at the moment) is present here.

So there are two interesting observations from this hike.  That razorback ridge, so impressive from the ground, is only 10 to 20 feet wide - that's the first thing.  In the shot I took of it, you have the entire width of it in the frame (along with my hand, where I tried to shield the phone cam from the sun).  When we were at the platform, a lot of people were going on up to summit the left side of the rocks - I thought about this, but decided against it due to the sun's angle and the craggy footing.  Still, I might like to try this in the future.

The second thing was the disregard for signs posted along the trail to not take shortcuts between the switchbacks.  Despite them, we saw quite a few beople contributing to the erosion and damage on this trail by scooting off and climbing the hillside.  I was shocked to see that a group of Mennonite kids on an outing were even doing this, they are usually more respectful of the environment when I encounter them on outings in the SNP.

I've discussed this with NPS employees in the past, why you don't see so much of this in the Park.  The difference may be in the entry fees, that having paid a nominal fee to get in, you are reminded to take care of the resource...we see this closer in to Hawksbill Cabin, up on the nearby Storybook Trail in GWNF, where the local kids spray paint graffiti on the rocks.

The climbing schools were going full-tilt on our visit, there were a couple of dozen climbers making their way up the rocks on several routes.  And as we were leaving, with the angled golden sun lighting up the rocks, you could see a crowd up on the summit.