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The loop is long, at nearly 11 miles, but its great variety of terrain, habitat, flora and vista make it a worthy undertaking.
If the parks and overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway are, as original landscape architect Stanley Abbott said, “a series of beads on a necklace,” then the perks and viewpoints of the 10.8-mile Rock Castle Gorge loop hike at milepost 167.1 are surely the treasured trinkets on a bracelet.
For where else is the hike that you can begin in any of several different ways: descending steeply through woodland; ascending gently through alternating bald areas, woodlands and Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks; ascending even more gently along a pretty trout stream; or ascending steeply through woodland.
And the best part is you get all the other elements no matter which way you begin a hike that has been touted as the definitive Virginia Sampler for a mountain walk.
Not to mention that, depending on the time of year, the almost 1,900-foot elevation change from the high point at 3,752-foot Rocky Knob to the low of 1,700 feet along Rock Castle Creek can have the effect of putting your walk into two different seasons. There are times when winter has come to the parkway ridge line and there is still fall leaf color along the creek. And there are times in early summer when it is a spring-like 10 degrees cooler along the creekflow than up on the balds.
The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and I have done scores and scores of hikes once, scores more twice, and only a chosen few a half dozen times. Rock Castle Gorge is on that short list, because of its variety, its challenging nature as a day hike and because it allows—encourages—a different focal point for each walk.
For most of our undertakings, we have begun by parking near the Rocky Knob Campground across the parkway from the trailhead.