The weather was staying nice out and the trees were shedding their summer greenery so we took a 4 hour drive to hike around the Dolly Sods. Nhandi and I rode with Erik and Amber and then two of Amber's students from a summer program met us the next morning. We arrived at dusk so after a short mile hike along the 522 trail and set camp for the night, made a fire, and enjoyed catching up. The next day, we were blown away by how beautiful the fall foliage was, it was the perfect weekend to be here.
The view that greeted us Saturday morning.
Our highlighted route. Parked at Bear Rocks Trailhead and hiked counterclockwise.
Map Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Dolly_sods_hiking_trail_map.jpg
Day 2 was sunny and clear providing amazing views of all the trees getting ready for winter. We passed by and climbed on a few rock formations and then found a great campsite with a huge fire pit, a few tent spots, a close-by stream, and not much firewood. But we sent out a few scouting parties and stocked up with enough wood to keep the fire going for a long while.
Cameron squeezing through a rock formation.
Dolly Sods has lots of cool rocks.
Of course I did some long exposure shots when we came upon a waterfall
Day 3 was getting cloudy and the weather forecast was calling for rain all day on Monday so we added some extra miles to our plan for Sunday and set camp along the 509 trail. Along the way we took a side trail up to Breathed Mountain which had tons of cool rock blocks you could jump between and also stopped to for a quick swim in the Red Creek Forks. Also, the surrounding campsites seemed mostly taken up anyway so our plan for extra miles worked out great. We again made a fire and retired to our tents right before the rains rolled in.
More pretty colors from atop Breathed Mountain
Day 4 was just a quick trek back to Bear Rocks Trailhead and although it was misty and muddy, it was still gorgeous. I didn't take many photos since it was raining and all but after the trail we took a quick detour to the Thai Winchester Restaurant for the essential post-hike feast
So long Dolly Sods