Patricia Ann Byrom Forest Preserve Hike

This is a great little hike not too far from Charlottesville and is the newest park in the Albemarle County Park system. It was donated by the Byrom family to be used as a county park. There is a nice vista at the Gibson Mountain Overlook at about the halfway mark, and is a great workout to get there climbing 1200 feet in 2.1 miles for the payoff. At one point in the hike, if you hiked almost directly north, you would be only 1.4 miles from Loft Mountain Campground in Shenandoah National Park. Trail intersections are well marked, however there are no trail blazes.

The drive to the trail head will remind you of many of the trails in SNP as you drive on Brown's Gap Turnpike and cross over Doyle's River.

Mile 0.0 – The trail begins just behind the information kiosk and starts to climb very quickly on the Great Mountain Trail. In 0.5 miles there will be a view of the creek on the left.
Mile 0.6 – Bear right onto the Blue Ledge Trail and very quickly you will bear to the left to stay on the trail.
Mile 1.0 – Small bridge, not far after the bridge bear right onto the Little Flat Mountain Loop trail.
Mile 1.4 – Reach a Picnic Table. Follow sign to continue up the Little Flat Mountain Loop trail. Note: From the picnic table if you hiked directly north you would reach Loft Mountain Campground in 1.4 miles, it would be one tough hike with over 1400' feet of elevation gain. There is no trail, we just mapped it out on our topo software from that point to see how close we were.
Mile 2.1 – Arrive at the Gibson Mountain Overlook looking south to the parking area and Blackwell Hollow. There is a nice bench to take in the views and catch your breath. Continue on the trail and quickly bear to the left and start heading down.
Mile 2.3 – Catfish Rock on the left, big rock, no views.
Mile 2.4 – Intersection with Blackwell's Trail. If you continued straight on the Little Flat Mountain Loop, it is a very steep descent. We did both trails and recommend Blackwell's Trail.
Mile 2.6 – Continue on Blackwell's Trail, there is supposed to be a Winter View here, we did not see much but maybe there was still too many leaves on the trees.
Mile 3.3 – Reach intersection of Little Flat Mountain Loop trail again and bear to the left.
Note: This is where we hiked back up Little Flat Mountain Loop trail to see how tough it would be coming down that way and is why we made our recommendation at Mile 2.4.
Mile 3.6 – Little Flat Mountain Loop trail bears to the left, stay straight to continue to the Great Mountains Trail.
Mile 3.8 – Reach the Great Mountains Trail and continue down to the parking lot.
Mile 4.3 – Parking Lot, end of hike.