June 7th, 2022: Foggy Hike to the Tallest Peak of Otter
There was something special about this hike. At first, I thought it was not going to be very fun. We had a hard time finding the trailhead to Flat Top Mountain. It was rainy and cloudy. The temperatures were chilly, and of course I did not wear appropriate layers for rainy and (somewhat) cold weather conditions. I had to hit up the Peaks of Otter gift shop to buy myself a sweater (and so did Vikas). Our negative attitudes changed midway through the hike. But how?
We parked at the Peaks of Otter Recreation Area. This is where AllTrails led us. We knew we had to find the picnic area. That’s where the trailhead was located. Little did we know we could drive and park over there. Anyway, we followed a paved path down to the picnic area where the trail began.
Did you know Flat Top Mountain is part of three mountain peaks called the Peaks of Otter. It’s located within the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Flat Top happens to be the tallest, sitting at 4,001 feet. It also happens to be the least popular (based on our anecdotal observation from hiking all three peaks).
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It was lightly raining the whole time. It was quite foggy as well. We were a bit annoyed with the weather conditions because we knew we would probably not see anything at the top with it being so cloudy and foggy. But we trekked on.
Eventually we started to enjoy it. The hike was challenging as it was a fairly steep uphill climb but oddly enough, we like that stuff. The fog rolling through the forest was giving ✨mystical medieval fairy-tale vibes.✨
We finally reached the summit of Flat Top! Well, actually it’s a peak… not a summit. That’s a bit confusing I know. I read that somewhere. Maybe I’m making stuff up but either way, we made it to the top! How were the views? Non-existent. But we still had an amazing time hiking to the top. We had such a great time we went back and did it again a year later! 😉
Our Rating of Flat Top Mountain
We give this trail a solid 7/10!
What we liked: foggy mystical atmosphere; challenging hike; well-maintained trail; lots of parking at trailhead; not-so-popular hike
What we didn’t like: too cloudy which meant no views at the top
