This hike was slightly easier than expected based on some of the descriptions I had read, but it definitely still qualifies as a hike rather than a walk and had two amazing views.
We started from a fire road on the east side of Skyline Drive a couple hundred feet north of the Loft Mountain Wayside. The fire road splits soon after. If you go left you can hit the Appalachian Trail further down and make the loop longer. We took the right fork which leads to a small maintenance hut. Right behind the hut we saw two black bears who proceeded to ignore us completely.
Past the hut and a small spring, a branch trail connects to the AT. This is the steepest uphill section. A short ways up the main trail, you come to a rock outcropping with a nice view overlooking the piedmont north of Charlottesville.
We continued to follow the AT to the top of the Frazier discovery trail, where there is an amazing west facing view of Massanutten. Following the north branch of the discovery trail down returns you to the wayside. The park map shows that you can follow the AT a little further from the outcropping, to reach the south branch of the discovery trail instead.
I was helping some friends manage their dogs, so I didn’t get many pictures (and one of the ones I did has nasty white balance problems), but it is a beautiful hike and the two overlooks are stunning.
Total Distance: 2.60 mi
Total climb: 1088 ft
Altitude change: 651 ft
(The stats might be a little inaccurate. I made a mistake with my GPS and had to remove part of the car ride from the track manually)
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