Great Channels Natural Area Preserve - The View

In addition to the geologic coolness of the rocks at the top of the Great Channels Natural Area Preserve, there is an insanely nice view of southwest Virginia. Since you are mostly above the tree canopy there is almost an unobstructed 360 degree view.

If a person was able to climb up the fire tower about two sections of steps, you'definitely have a clear view all around - but the fire tower has a sign that warns folk not to climb - so I can't in good conscience advise you to do this. I've not been anywhere in this area that affords such an unobstructed view of the valleys and surrounding mountain ranges. I'd be willing to bet that on a clear day you could see 50 miles.

The top picture was take facing due south. The sun was low in the west, it was quite hazy over the mountains, and I had forgotten to reinstall my polarizer afore I took this picture, so I dinked with the picture a bit trying to bring out some of the detail.

The bottom picture was taken facing north-east. That direction was not as badly hazed over as the southern exposure, so it needed a bit less post-processing.

I'll definitely be making a trip back in early winter when the sky's clear and the haze is gone. It'll be spectacular.

Great Channels Natural Area Preserve

I made an impromptu trip to the Channels Natural Area Preserve in Russell Co. Va. It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and the trees were displaying some great color.

The hike is about 6.2 miles roundtrip, with almost all of it on a gravel forest service road. The first mile or so is pretty easy, the last 2+ miles is a consistent climb, where most of the 1000 feet gain in altitude is made.

The first thing you see when you get there are the remnants of a small house and the fire tower pictured below. Walking past the firetower leads to a small trail through the rhododendron and down into the channels.

It's like nothing I've seen in this area before. The walls are 15 to 30 feet high, made of sandstone that's been grooved and pitted. The walls have been carved into huge boulders that have toppled over making a ceiling over the pathways. My description doesn't do this place justice, you really just need to go see it for yourself.

Cool Stuff to See Around Little Rock

The first picture was taken while I was standing between the index finger and middle finger of Six Fingers Falls because there wasn't any water running between the other fingers.

The top right picture is of Falling Water Waterfall - sounds like it was named the Deptartment of Redundancy Department. The color of the water is interestingly odd, and there is no obvious out-flow of water from the plunge pool, the water must be leaking out between the rocks or into a cavern.

And the bottom right picture is the official Pedestal Rock located in the Pedestal Rocks Scenic Area, in north central Arkansas.








The next three pictures were taken at the air show in Little Rock, nose art from an a-10 warthog from the 'flying razorbacks'. The next two are of the USAF Thunderbirds - they rocked, at the Rock.

Devil's Bathtub

It was the first really cold wet day of fall which meant that I finally had an opportunity to make a scouting trip to the Devil's Bathtub. I was waiting for a cold day to go because of the stories I'd heard about the snake population in the area. I figured if I went on a cold day I could out-maneuver any ninja-death-killer-attack snakes I might run across. And after having made the trip I can confirm that this is some of the snake-i-est looking terrain I've ever hiked through. There's no way I would ever venture into that part of the country during snake season, uh-uh, no way.

The devil's bathtub is located in Scott Co. Virginia, along the Devil's Fork trail. The trail follows Devil's Fork creek (duh), which is very fortunate considering the generally poor condition of the trail - but more on that later.

The trail starts at the top of the wooden stairs (yep, stairs) at the parking area. It proceeds downhill about 1/4 mile to the first of a dozen creek crossings. A hundred or so feet past the creek, the trail splits - there are several trees with yellow blazes here - you want to take the trail going left. After 50 ft the trail will split - start looking to the right to pick up the trail - I'm not sure if you can see any yellow blazes marking the trail through the woods. From here the trail generally follows the creek, crisscrossing it numerous times over the the next 1 1/2 miles.

The creek itself is made completely of sandstone rocks of every size from baseballs to refrigerators. What makes it so odd looking is the total lack of moss or grass or weeds or greenery of any kind on the sandstone rocks, they are all completely clean. There has been some obvious flooding because the creek is also littered with huge piles of trees and brush, some so large that they completely block the creek. And this is why I assume they grow all the snakes here - miles of clean standstone creek bottom - which makes millions of holes and pockets - and all of it covered in flood-washed debris.

Once you traverse the 1 1/2 miles of a rather average looking trail through hemlock and rhododendron, you'll reach the part of the creek that created the bathtub. This section of the mountain looks nothing like any of the terrain you've passed through to this point. It's a canyon carved out of sandstone by years of erosion. The trail itself comes out above the bathtub; the picture above is your first view of the bathtub and it's surroundings. Awesome!

Check out the color of the water and the bottom and sides of the bathtub! It looks a bit fake in the picture and it's not exactly the right color (a bit too green), but it's pretty close. I'm not sure what rocks are making that bluish-green, almost teal color. The weather was cloudy all day and it was raining off and on the whole time I was there, so the color did not come from a reflection of the sky. The water itself is almost perfectly clear. Notice that tree limb on the left, it's about 10 ft long and I could not touch the bottom of bathtub with it - yes I tried it, and yes, the water is frigid!

Lest you think the color of the pool is a product of post-processing, a couple of hundred feet downstream is another large pool that is the same bluish-green color. The water is so perfectly clear that you get a distorted perception of the depth. This pool is about 8 feet deep at it's deepest point, which is in that cut in the rocks at the base of the cascade where the water pours into the pool.

While overcast weather is absolutely the best for taking waterfall pictures, this isn't classic waterfall picturetaking. This place begs for days with clear blue skies overhead and bright fall colors. I'm definitely going to make a trip back up there later this fall, once there's some colored leaves on the ground; it'll be amazing. And I hear there's a 50 foot waterfall just a bit further upstream ... a sweet bonus.

Directions: Take US Hwy. 23/US Hwy. 58/US Hwy. 421 toward Gate City. In Gate City, continue going straight as the road becomes East Jackson Street and, ultimately, VA Route 71. Head east on Route 71 for a little over a mile. From here, take VA Route 72 to the left toward Fort Blackmore. Shortly after VA Route 65 and VA Route 72 merge, turn left onto VA Route 619.

Once on Route 619/653 for about 3 1/2 miles, the road splits, follow 619 to the right, travel about 1 mile more and look for the Devils Fork sign. Route 619 takes a sharp left and becomes Forest Road 619 (there is no street sign). Travel over the one-lane bridge and turn left just before the abandoned white house with a chain link fence. Follow this unmarked dirt road to the end, where you will find parking for the trail. The road to the parking lot is very rutted and may not be accessible by all vehicles, high clearance and 4wd is recommended. You cannot park along the road and walk because the property on both sides of the road is posted, you must get to the parking area at the end of the road.

Pat's Falls and Middle Laurel Falls

The second hike over the labor day weekend to scout out some potential waterfall hikes for this fall was intended to be a short one to new falls (Pat's Falls and Middle Laurel Falls) on a trail I'd been on before (Laurel Falls Trail in Dennis Cove). It was another bad really day for taking pictures of water but it was a glorious day for going walk-about.

The side trail down to Pat's falls is about 8/10ths of a mile down the Laurel Falls trail. It's a short but excitingly steep descent of 150 feet down the side of the hill. If you like waterfalls this one is definitely worth the effort.

The upper drop is about 8 feet high, the lower is shorter at about 3 ft. The pool at the base is quite impressive, I'm sure it's quite popular with the fishermen - if not it should be. The rocks that makeup the falls are copper colored and covered in some wicked cool green and brown lichens, a really great color contrast with the white water background.

Get back up on the trail and continue toward Laurel Falls. About another 4/10ths of a mile and you'll hear the Middle Laurel Falls about 200 feet below the trail - yep, that's 200 feet of straight down the mountain holding onto roots, trees and anything else that's handy. You might want to skip this one because of the treacherous nature of the trip up and down, and the falls themselves are not the most special ones around. The falls are really just an 8 foot high cascade that empties into long pool, but there are several cascades in th area that are just as nice and easier to get to. I snapped a few pictures which were ok, but again, this was not the best day for water snapping pictures. I collapsed my hiking stick and used it like an ice axe to crawl up the side of the mountain to get back on the trail.

I intended to continue on to Laurel Falls proper but by this time there were several folk on the trail, and if you've ever been to Laurel Falls you know how much work it takes to climb the rock stairs back up the hill once you make the trip down the hill. I was tired, so I trekked back out to the truck, maybe next time.

Upper Laurel Fork Falls & Campbell Falls

The cool morning temperature that signals the advent of fall was in the air so I hauled my lazy butt out of bed early on Saturday and went waterfalling in Frog Level. To get there one must go through the Dennis Cove recreation area, past the campground, all the way to the top of the mountain. There is a gated forest service road on the right (just as the main road breaks hard left) that takes you all the way down the mountain to the level of the frogs. You'll know it's the right road if you see the huge stump pushed up against the gate. The gravel road down the mountain is a bit over a mile in length, and is in remarkably good shape, so good in fact that some folk had pulled in a pop-up camper. The road ends at a turn-about. Park there and cross the creek.

Follow the forest service road as it continues leftward, generally following the creek. The hike was very easy with very little gain in elevation but there are several very challenging creek crossings to negotiate if you are trying to keep your feet dry. After the first of these crossings you'll come upon a good sized clearing, follow the tree-line down the left side of the clearing and you'll find the trailhead marker for Laurel Fork Trail and another, more challenging creek crossing. Laurel Fork Trail is easy to follow, and is in very good shape, with only a few muddy spots, but did I mention the creek crossings? There are two more of them to negotiate over the next .4 miles before you get to the falls. You'll definitely hear the falls as you approach them. There's a small trail down to the base of the falls, but it is very steep, and wet, and slippery, and steep, and rocky, and wet. It's one time I definitely wish I had brought some rope. I have a nice rope in the truck, about 25 feet long with a knot about every foot, but it's only useful if you remember to bring it.

Once back on the trail, continue up stream to Campbell Falls. This part of the trek is another .6 miles of trail, two more creek crossings, and one section of swamp slogging with some nearly-rotten logs to walk on, it only adds to the excitment. There's a steep and muddy side trail down to the pool at the bottom of the falls, I passed up it once I saw the mud. The falls face away from the trail, so to get some good pictures you'd have to negotiate the mudslide trail to the pool, then cross the creek at the base of the falls, something I wasn't prepared to do on this day. Instead I took the second side trail to the top of the falls. There's simply no way to get a good shot of the falls from up top, but there was a beautiful cascade at the top which is where this picture was made.

There's a third set of falls in the same general area, Firescald Branch Falls, which I couldn't find an obvious trail to, I'll try harder the next time ;)

Breeestol - night race at BMS

Since the death of Dale Sr. at Daytona in 2001 and the advent of the 'chase for the championship' system, the whole NASCAR world has lost a lot of it's pull on me. I used to be as big a fan as there was, but a lot of the fun was gone. I hadn't been to a NASCAR race at BMS in many years, so when I scored two suite passes for the night race I was a bit so-so about the whole thing.

The weather was typical Bristol race weather, that is, rainy and humid - that much hadn't changed. But there was a whole sea of humanity at the place that night, probably twice as many people as the last time I had been there.

I can remember going to BMS when there were only concrete seats on the front and back stretch, when you could get free tickets for the Busch series race, when the grand National race wasn't even sold out. Times, they are a changing.

The track has a modern stadium feel, very high tech, nice and clean. And the suite was most excellent. The food was hot, the beverages were cold, the seats were comfortable, it couldn't have been better. The sound level of a Bristol race is legendary, but inside the suite it was loud enough to be intriguing, but not much as to be a distraction. The sight lines are magnificent from way up there, the only complaint was that looking thru glass corners can distort certain angles, but I'll take that trade-off every day.

Since I had to watch Kyle Busch win, I'm glad I got to suffer through it in a suite.