October 28, 2023: Hiking All Three Peaks of Otter in One Day
Want to take on the “Peaks of Otter One Day Challenge”??? I actually just made up… it’s not an “official” challenge. Either way, it’s something really fun to do if you like physically challenging yourself. Basically, we hiked all three Peaks of Otter in one day. The total mileage came out to be about 12 miles and elevation gain was about 4,000 feet. For the average hiker, I would consider this a tough challenge.
If you don’t know about the Peaks of Otter, they are three mountain peaks located within the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The three peaks are called Sharp Top, Flat Top, and Harkening Hill. It’s a very popular tourist destination and for good reason – it’s beautiful! We went in the fall time to hike all three peaks in one day and the fall colors were out of this world!
Learn more about the best time to visit, where to stay, places to eat and drink, and the top things to do at Peaks of Otter and the surrounding area. It is a great area to explore and has so much beauty and history! Hiking to each of the three Peaks of Otter is the best part, in our opinion.
✨ Read my Complete Guide to Visiting Peaks of Otter to help plan your trip! ✨
My husband and I decided to knock out the most strenuous hike first then the second hardest then the easiest. Also, the most strenuous one, known as Sharp Top, happens to be the perfect spot for watching sunrise. Our alarms went off super early that morning and away we went to start our little challenge.
We have hiked all three Peaks of Otter before but not in one day. We were very excited! We love physically challenging ourselves. Plus, we love hiking. So, it was the perfect challenge for us! We arrived at the trailhead of Sharp Top. We weren’t the only ones that had the idea to watch sunrise at the summit of Sharp Top. This is the most popular hike of the Peaks of Otter, but I wasn’t expecting so many people that early in the morning. The groups of people that were hiking up were huge!
We are typically fast hikers, so we bypassed a ton of people. Also, we wanted a good spot to watch sunrise. When I say we booked it up the trail, I mean we BOOKED IT! I just want to remind everyone that even though this hike is only 1.5 miles to the top, it is strenuous! There is about 1,300 feet of elevation in that short distance which is why it is so tough. And at the pace we were going, I literally thought I was going to die! I’m being very dramatic, but I do remember feeling a bit queasy near the top as we tried our best to pass the last group of people, but we didn’t make it in time.
The best spot to watch sunrise on Sharp Top was overrun with a big group of people. If only we would have woken up 15 minutes earlier. We managed to find a pretty decent spot on some rocks. A little bit later the other groups of people we passed started making their way up. It was extremely crowded up there. We still enjoyed watching the sunrise and got a few awesome shots!
My husband and I aren’t too fond of big crowds, so we left to see if we could watch the rest of the sunrise from another location. Buzzard’s Roost is another spot near the summit of Sharp Top that has awesome views and requires a little bit of rock scrambling. There was no one there thankfully but the sunrise was on the other side hiding behind the trees. However, the sunrise colors still lit up the sky and made the fall leaves even more bright and beautiful!
While we were sitting on Buzzard’s Roost, we started reading reviews of Sharp Top on AllTrails (not sure why honestly). We ended up reading a review that talked about a Bomber plane crash in the area. We immediately did some research and found the coordinates to the plane crash. It wasn’t too far from Buzzard’s Roost, but it was a short, steep climb down the mountain.
The B25 Bomber crash site is truly a hidden gem on Sharp Top Mountain. Add an extra 0.5 miles to your hike to Sharp Top to see this historical spot!
It was an incredible site to see. Obviously, it’s a really sad scene but it’s a piece of history lying right there on Sharp Top Mountain. We weren’t expecting to see a memorial plaque built into a rock. It provided more details about what happened, how the plane crashed, and the young men who lost their lives. We paid our respects and headed back up the mountain to get back onto the trail.
We made our way back down from Sharp Top Mountain and headed to the next trailhead. Flat Top Mountain was next on our list. This is another hard to strenuous hike. It is a 2.2-mile one-way hike to the top with 1,400 feet of elevation gain. Almost similar to Sharp Top but the elevation gain is a bit more stretched out. There are two different trailheads for this hike. We started our hike at the Peaks of Otter Picnic Area.
The first time we hiked Flat Top it was completely foggy! No views whatsoever from the top. Thankfully, this time was very clear. We made our way to the top with a slower pace since we weren’t lowkey racing other people to the top to watch sunrise. This trail is not as busy as Sharp Top nor Harkening Hill which is one of the things we love about this hike. We made it to the top and the views were stunning! We sat on one of the rocky outcrops to rest and have a snack.
Our next and final hike was Harkening Hill. But not just to the summit. We added on another fun trail to make things more interesting. We combined Harkening Hill Trail and Johnson Farm Trail to make one big loop. We have actually done this hike before going clockwise, so we decided to go counterclockwise.
We made a little oopsies. We accidently took the wrong trail. The Johnson Farm Trail is a smaller loop hike. Well, instead of taking the far right portion of that trail (like we should have), we took the far left. Ok big deal, right? It’s actually not that big of a deal, but it’s an annoying mistake and here’s why. The trail we accidently took caused us to have to backtrack and messed up our plan to hike the entire loop counterclockwise.
We hiked to the summit of Harkening Hill first. It was a beautiful trail, and the views were great! Since we wanted to hit up Johnson Farm as well, we had to retrace our steps back the way we came to get onto the Johnson Farm Trail again.
We reached the old historical farm and explored the area. It’s a really cute place to see, and you can learn more about the history in that area. Instead of retracing our steps back to the summit of Harkening Hill and finishing up the loop as planned, we just finished up the Johnson Farm loop and called it a day. We still completed our challenge of hiking to all three Peaks of Otter in one day!
If you decide to take on the “Peaks of Otter One Day Challenge” because of this blog post, let us know in the comments below or DM us on Instagram. We would LOVE to hear all about your experience hiking all three trails!
Our Rating of the Three Peaks of Otter
We give all three trails an average of 8/10!
What we liked: two of the hikes were a good challenge; watching sunrise from Sharp Top; B25 Bomber plane crash site; beautiful fall colors everywhere; clear, sunny day so we got to see stunning views from each summit; successfully completing our little challenge
What we didn’t like: very crowded at Sharp Top during sunrise; getting on the wrong portion of the trail at Harkening Hill/Johnson Farm Loop (our fault, oops!)
