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We "celebrated" the arrival of Daylight Savings Time (except of course in the morning, when it is Daylight Destroying Time) with an evening climb up to the formation.

The two minor drawbacks of this enjoyable, mostly gentle loop are that its viewpoints are in the first two miles or so, and it ends with a long ascent.

This enjoyable, easy loop is always a good one for a rushed weekend where you get to reinforce how lucky Roanoke is to have the Appalachian Trail as close as 20 minutes away, but also its own in-town trail system on its own in-town mountain.

You can think about a climb with 21 switchbacks as one long climb of a mountainside. Or you can think about why the trail builders created them: to make the climb of a mountainside a heck of a lot easier than going straight up.

You get a sunny February day with a predicted high of nearly 60, plus a not-too-far destination with a pretty view, and every once in awhile, you can get some big numbers for a hike.