Grayson Highlands in Bloom

Jeffrey Stoner
Fine Art Photography

On June 9th I traveled to Grayson Highlands in southwest Virginia to experience the Catawba Rhododendron that bloom in early June. It was a beautiful clear day which was much different than the thick fog on my last visit at the end of May.

I parked in Grayson Highlands State Park’s Massie Gap parking lot and began the hike to Rhododendron Gap. There are several trails that lead to the Gap and today I took the Appalachian Trail, to Wilburn Branch Trail, and then connected back to the Appalachian Trail.

The Wilburn Branch Trail is one of my favorite trails in the park. It climbs across Wilburn Ridge at 5526 feet in elevation and has unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.

After climbing down Wilburn Ridge I reconnected to Appalachian Trail. This part of the trail has a fun feature called Fatman Squeeze Tunnel. The Squeeze is a short tunnel through the rock and makes for a cool spot on a hot day. It’s easy to squeeze through unless you have a large backpack.

I continued on the Appalachian Trail until it connected with Rhododendron Gap Trail which is marked by large rock formations. A short climb up these rocks gave me a view of a landscape that feels like it is from another place and time. There are hundreds of acres of rhododendron stretching to the horizon.

I climbed down from the rocks and hiked east along Rhododendron Gap Trail. The trail goes through rhododendron in open fields as well as through rhododendron tunnels.

The image to the right was taken after I climbed to the top of a small outcrop and looked back across the fields I just hiked through.

I headed back to the original rock formation. While taking images from the top of the rocks I noticed another photographer. He looked familiar and then I realized it was Sven, originally from Sweden, who I met last year while taking images of the rhododendron on Roan Mountain. Last year I suggested he go to Grayson Highlands in early June and was glad to see he made it.

We could see a huge thunderstorm heading our way so Sven and I walked/ran the 2.5 miles back to Massie Gap. When we reached a high spot along the trail I could see five simultaneous lightning strikes in the distance. The thought of holding a metal tripod in this thunderstorm kept me moving at a good clip. Sven and I made it safely back to Massie Gap where we parted company and I waited in my car for the storm to clear.

When the storm cleared it was close to sunset and I thought I would climb up the .4 mile trail to Big Pinnacle Rock (5.069 feet) to get a view of the Highlands. In this image you can see Wilburn Ridge on the upper left and the Appalachian Trail near the top center. As the sun was setting I hiked back to the car.

It was a great day for experiencing the incredible beauty of the mountain highlands.



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