Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks Camping Trip

June 28-30, 2004

My friend Geoff and I decided to go camping at the end of June 2004. We chose to go backcountry camping in Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreational Area in West Virginia. This is a journal of the trip.

June 28

We left Potomac at around 11:00 am. We anticipated the drive to take about 3.5 hours. The route was the Capital Beltway to I-66 west. We picked up I-81 south and stopped for lunch at McDonalds just outside of Front Royal. We exited I-81 and drove to U.S. route 33 west. This took us through downtown Harrisonburg, which is quite a nice town. It has old buildings and looks like it is still in the early 1800s. From Harrisonburg, we drove through the George Washington National Forest to the Virginia/West Virginia border, about 50 miles. In West Virginia, the George Washington National Forest ends close to the border, and there are some small towns and farms before the Monongahela National Forest. Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area is just one of the parks in the Monongahela National Forest. Our first stop was at Seneca Rocks. This is a beautiful spot that everyone should visit while they are in West Virginia. Rising 900 feet above the North Fork River, Seneca Rocks is a formation of Tuscarora Quartzite. These formations are quite common across eastern West Virginia. We decided to hike up to the observation deck on the rocks. The hike was 1.5 miles with a vertical rise of 1,000 feet. The view from the top was nice, but we decided to climb up the top of the rocks to the very top. It was well worth the climb. The feeling of being at the top was amazing, and looking down was totally exhilarating. From where we were, it looked like a 500-foot drop to the ground below us. After climbing down the rocks and hiking back to the parking lot, we chose to drive south to Spruce Knob, and set up camp near the summit.

June 29

After packing our backpacks and supplies, we hiked a half-mile to the car to put our packs down, and proceeded another half a mile to the summit of Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia. At a height of 4,863 feet we could see the ridges and valleys of the Appalachians in all directions. In the far distance to the east, we could see the Blue Ridge of Virginia. It was a gorgeous day and the area was very serene. We walked along Whispering Spruce Trail, which encircles the summit. We stopped at each side, sat down, and enjoyed the peace and calmness of the mountain and the areas surrounding us. We then headed to the car for our ride to Smoke Hole Canyon. The drive to the canyon was about 25 miles to the north of Spruce Knob. We drove along the south branch of the Potomac River at the bottom of Smoke Hole Canyon. There are a lot of fishing areas and rock formations like those of Seneca Rocks. The canyon is heavily forested and runs for 20 miles along the river with its deepest point being about a half mile deep. We tried to find the picnic area where we planned to hike into the woods, however the map and the sign we saw pointed to a place that didn't exist, or at least we couldn't find it. We saw a sign for North Fork Mountain so we decided to head there. At the base of the mountain is a sign from the forest service saying that standard passenger cars are not suitable for the road to the top. However, it was getting late and we needed to find a place to camp, so I decided to drive it anyways. We headed up the extremely rocky road and after about 20-30 minutes, we got to the top. We camped next to what we thought was an FAA relay tower, about 3,500 feet above sea level.

June 30

Happily, we survived the night on the summit of the isolated North Fork Mountain. However we still were not sure if the car would be able to handle the descent down the rocky, drit road. We packed up our things and began our very slow drive down the mountain. This time it took about 40 minutes to get down because I was afriad the brakes would give out. The car handled just fine and after listening to Steppenwolf, we stopped for gas and snacks and started our 4-hour drive home. We took the same route back to Harrisonburg, and then made our way through Shenandoah National Park to US 29, then to Intersate 66. We got back to Potomac around 3:30 pm, when I dropped Geoff off at his house. I then got home at about 4 pm.