June 20th, 2022: Our favorite hike in all of Virginia
If you ever decide to hike the most popular trail in Virginia (aka Old Rag Mountain) during peak season (aka summertime), I suggest going on a weekday. My husband and I went on a Monday. We got to the trailhead late that day… I think around 1 p.m. and ended up parking in the overflow lot, which was very full, and it seemed we got one of the last parking spots.
We thought the amount of people on the trail was going to be horrendous. But as we walked to the trailhead, we saw two other parking lots which were almost empty. I guess everyone decided to park in the first parking lot they got to which was the overflow parking lot. We were relieved.
A super busy trail is not very fun to be honest, but sometimes you have to deal with it and make the most of it! We walked up to the park ranger’s station and showed the lady our IDs, day-use passes, and annual pass. We were then ready to begin our trek up the mountain!
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Old Rag Mountain is our favorite hike in all of Virginia! I did this hike when I was little (like maybe 9 or 10 years old) with my family, and I remember how much fun I had climbing and scrambling up and down all the giant rocks. It was my kind of playground! And here we are, like 15 years later, I still had the same excitement and enthusiasm as I did as a little kid!
The rock scramble portion of Old Rag is definitely my favorite part of the entire hike. There is a little hiding spot along the trail through a narrow crevice (like scary narrow) that I named the “Butt Crack of Old Rag”. It’s right off the trail so you don’t have to go through it to get to the top, but if you decide to tackle it, make sure you’re not claustrophobic. You’ll have to leave your backpack behind since it’s a tight squeeze. The views at the end are amazing!
Funny side note: I forgot my hiking shoes at home, so I had to hike Old Rag in a pair of Nike Air Max shoes… those are not meant for hiking lol. Like I said earlier, we went on a Monday in June and thankfully the trail was not too crowded. We definitely passed a lot of people, but never had to wait to get through certain sections of the rock scramble.
We started the trail at 1 p.m. and I think we finished around 6:30 p.m. We were moving fairly quick! I didn’t want to be on the trail in the dark! Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many pictures of the hike or rock scrambling part BUT we vlogged our entire hike from start to finish which you can watch below.
Our Rating of Old Rag Circuit
We give this trail a solid 10/10! Honestly, I’d give it a 100/10. Our favorite hike in all of Virginia!
What we liked: challenging trail; best rock scrambles; beautiful views during the hike and at the summit; easy hike down; well-marked
What we didn’t like: nothing. This trail is perfect in my opinion 🙂 Honestly, I’m sure on a super busy day it’s probably not fun to wait in lines during certain parts of the rock scrambles from what I’ve read, but thankfully, we didn’t have to deal with that.
