My brother and I have been trying to get out and hike together a couple of times a year the last couple of years. Last week we went to Dolly Sods Wilderness in the Monogahela National Forest in West Virginia. It turned out to be a truly beautiful and amazing place.

Day 1 was mostly driving. I had to drive from Indiana to Ohio to pick him up, and he had some prior commitments in the morning, so we didn't get to the trailhead until about an hour before dark. We hadn't been able to find very good maps of the surrounding area, and Google steered us wrong, so we ended up driving around and wasting a bunch of time trying to find the trailhead...and ultimately ended up at the wrong one, but decided to just roll with it and start there since we were running out of daylight.

We entered the wilderness at the Rohrbaugh Plains trailhead and hiked in about a mile before we found a campsite...thankfully right about dusk. It had rained earlier that day and the site was pretty soggy, but with dark coming on and not knowing what was ahead, we jumped on it. It got down to about 25 that first night, and even with a 20 degree bag, thermals, and all my clothes on, it was kinda chilly.



Day 2 was better. We woke up to sunshine, and hit the trail. It was pretty muddy, but there were some fun creek crossings and we got a great view of the valley about 30 minutes in.



We crossed a waterfall going down, and then had to wade Red Creek once we got to the bottom of the valley. It was cold and deep, and my pants got soaked even though I rolled them up, but it was warm and they dried fast.



After crossing the creek, we hiked up and around a mountain on a trail called "Rocky Point" which lived up to it's name. At least there wasn't any mud.



After navigating Rocky Point, we came to Big Stonecoal. All day long we'd been passing through drastically different environments...rainforest-like rhododendron thickets, deciduous forest, pines...but this area reminded me of some alpine areas I've been to out west in Colorado and Wyoming. The creek running through the pines and meadows...absolutely gorgeous.



A few more miles of hiking brought us to the other side of the wilderness, and the trailhead where we'd actually planned to start. From there we headed up to the northern section, which was wide open and had almost a moor-type look to it.



We scored a great campsite in a pine forest up in the NW corner. It was dry, protected from the wind (it is very windy up there), and the ground was a literal mattress of soft pine-needles. We had a nice fire, cooked dinner, and listened to the coyotes howl. It had been a 14-15 mile day, and I got some of the best seep I've ever had in a tent that night.



Day 3 we hiked out onto the upper sods. It was beautiful, but soggy, muddy, and wet even though it hadn't rained in a couple of days.



We did about 8 miles back to where we'd crossed Red Creek the day before, got there around noon, and since we had the time and there was a great campsite by the creek, we decided to call it a day. We set up camp, found a swimming hole up the creek, made a fire, and hung out for the rest of the day. There was a group of deer that kept walking through our campsite that were fun to watch, and I almost stepped on a snake barefoot, so that kept things interesting.



Day 4, we hiked about 5.5 miles back to the car and drove home. The weather was awesome the whole time, and we only saw 11 other people in the 4 days that we were there. Dolly Sods definitely gets a thumbs up from us, and I imagine we'll be back.

thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing the hike. Nothing like getting away from it all for a few days and taking in nature.

Dolly Sods is one of the best if not the best hiking area on the East Coast. I recognize many of the areas in your pictures. The diversity in the landscape you find there is amazing. Dense forest to high plains with nothing around but a few trees.

One of my favorite campsites is just about 2 miles in from the forest service road off the Bear Rocks Trail. There is a group of pine trees on the high plain area that makes a great place to set up.

When I started hiking there many years ago you could go on a summer weekend and hike for miles without seeing anyone. I know I've camped there and there were no other humans within a mile or two of us. In the last few years word has gotten out and summer weekends are more crowded. This time of year it's still not bad because nighttime temps will often drop below freezing. I treasure weekends I used to spend up there and could count the number of people I saw on one hand.

Glad you made it out there when it wasn't crowded.

Yeah, I'll gladly put up with a little bit of cold and a little bit of mud to have more peace and solitude. Most folks I've met on the trail have been awesome, but the real purpose of getting out is to enjoy the solitude, and we definitely got to do that this trip. I'm still blown away that a place like this exists east of the Mississippi.

Beautiful pics.

I did a 4 day trip in Dolly Sods many years ago. Your pictures brought back great memories.

Great photos and narratives. I enjoyed them.
Thanks for posting!