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Distance:
2.8 Miles / 4.5 km
Type:
One-Way
Difficulty:
Moderate
Time to Hike:
1 hour, ~24 minutes
Features:
Surface Type:
Dirt
Park:
Jefferson National Forest
Town:
Whitetop, Virginia
Directions:
36.646244, -81.582882
Added:
September 06, 2017
Updated:
November 27, 2017

The Virginia Highlands Horse Trail at Jefferson National Forest near Wilson Creek and Whitetop, Virginia is a moderate 2.8 mile one-way hike to/from the Elk Garden Trailhead to the intersection with the Appalachian Trail to Mount Rogers.

This GPS data starts at the AT to Mount Rogers Trail with scenic mountain top views and heads into the Lewis Fork Wilderness at Jefferson National Forest. The trail ends up in a scenic cow pasture with mountain top views before getting back to the Elk Garden Trailhead parking lot.

The trail itself is much longer than 2.8 miles one-way, but this section is a great shortcut back from Mount Rogers to make the hike 8.5 miles instead of 9 on the AT.

Follow the orange blazes; however, some of them look dark orange/redish at times. When you make it to the connector trail between this one and the AT, the blazes will be blue on the large boulders along the trail.

Explore 4 trails near Whitetop, VA
  1. Parking

    36.646244, -81.582882
  2. Main Trailhead

    36.651205, -81.547566
  3. Vista at the trailhead

    36.651128, -81.547508
    Vista at the trailhead
  4. Beautiful vista along the trail

    36.651086, -81.547914
    Beautiful vista along the trail
  5. Beautiful vista along the trail

    36.650831, -81.548522
    Beautiful vista along the trail
  6. Beautiful vista along the trail

    36.650322, -81.550094
    Beautiful vista along the trail
  7. Beautiful vista along the trail

    36.650489, -81.551078
    Beautiful vista along the trail
  8. Beautiful vista along the trail

    36.647811, -81.577539
    Beautiful vista along the trail
  9. Cow amongst a beautiful vista

    36.646064, -81.581856
    Cow amongst a beautiful vista
Explore other trail routes for this hike, added by the MyHikes Community via Trip Reports.
No community routes found. To add your own route as a Community Route for this Trail guide, please leave a Trip Report with a GPX file on this Trail.

Hazards

Ticks - Lyme Disease More Info (CDC)

Season

Summer

Blaze Color

Orange
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783 '

Total Change
41 '

Ascent
795 '

Descent

Photo Albums

2 Trip Reports

No Star-Ratings
Write-up by:
Admin user profile picture
2.8 miles / 4.5 km
Trail added
September 06, 2017
Hiked on
September 03, 2017
Updated on
November 27, 2017
2.8 miles / 4.5 km
September 03, 2017
Hiking

Weather Forecast

In Whitetop, VA

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Dave Miller
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