Riprap Hollow

I had done hike on Riprap Hollow on 6th June 2015 . It is located in Virginia State near Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive.
Hike Location
Name: Riprap Hollow
Distance: 105 miles from Richmond (approx)
Total hiking distance: 9.5 miles (approx).
Altitude: 3020 ft.
Hike Team: Amol and me.
Hiking Experience: We started around 6:30 am from our place. It was little bright by that time. Bought water bottles from Kroger near to our place and then set out for our destination. Reached the parking for Riprap hollow by 8:23 am. The drive was good along the interstate and then the outskirts of city with green farms alongside of the road was a beautiful scenery to watch. We had breakfast and started hike around 8:32 am. The climate was very good with not much sunlight and cool breeze. The trail was narrow and surrounded by small plants on both sides. Due to heavy rainfall on the previous day, the plants look fresh and much greener and gave feast to the eyes. We took right at first junction towards Appalachian Trail (A.T.). The path was narrow and there were small pebbles along the path. There was water stream flowing on the left side of the trail. We crossed the stream multiple times. The water was very cold. The trail lead us to the midst of the jungle having huge trees protecting us from sunlight. Cool breeze was flowing all the way. Soon we reached top of the mountain and view of the valley from the top is spectacular.

It was very windy at the top and standing on the rock patches with huge valley before us was a great experience. As we moved further on the trail we reached another similar great view. We continued further and soon we reached waterfall which was small but force of water was high and made loud noise. The water was very pure and tasty. The trail was not much steep and great climate made the hike much pleasant. As we hiked further we saw a large, clean, beautiful pond. The water from the waterfall was accumulated here. The water was blue in colour reflecting its purity.  We reached the intersection of A.T. and Riprap trail. We took left towards Riprap trail. The trail was steep and path was covered with huge stones making it difficult to hike. The path was not completely covered with trees and could feel the heat of Sun as we hiked. The steep increased gradually as we conitnued to hike. There was not much cool breeze but shade of the trees on the path gave good relief and we kept on moving. We halted for lunch around 11:32 am.

Had delicious homemade food under the shade of the trees. We resumed our hike around 12:06 pm. The trail was down the hill for sometime which made us relieve after having lunch. The path was covered with shredded tree leaves and it was very soft to walk. The steep of the trail increased gradually. We came to the intersection of Riprap and A.T. We took left towards A.T. The path was covered with small stones giving us a soothing pain while walking on them. The trail was down the hill and we could move with little faster pace. We saw couple of fellow hikers along the trail. On the way we saw huge fallen trees obstructing the path. Finally we reached our parking spot around 1:20 pm. We stretched a bit and then started around 1:28 pm. Reached home by 3:10 pm. Overall it was an amazing trek with awesome experience at the pond and waterfalls and trails were very narrow and beautiful. Also it was an informative hike as we discussed many things about Shivaji Maharaj and the way he fought battles. All is well.