Big Devils Stairs

We had done hike to Big Devils Stairs  on 24th July 2016 . It is located in Virginia State in Shenandoah National Park.
Hike Location
Name: Big Devils Stairs
Distance: 100 miles from Richmond(approx)
Total hiking distance: 5.5 miles.
Altitude: 1055 ft.
Hike Team: Deepak and me
Hiking Experience:Started around 7:35 am in the morning, picked up Deepak and set off for the Destination on Skyline Drive(Gravel Springs Gap Parking).We reached by 10:46 am. There was one car in the parking lot by the time we reached. Had our breakfast at the parking lot on rocks under the shade. It was very sunny day. Around 11:05 am we started our hike. We followed the yellow blaze trail which was very wide initially. There were so many trees on both sides of the trail which kept the place cool. In few mins we reached an intersection where we took left and continued on our yellow blazed trail. The trail is narrowed and lead us to the middle of the jungle. There was a water stream which was dried. We crossed it and continued further. We are traversing down the hill. With cool breeze and little sunshine through the gaps of the leaves of big trees we had the perfect weather for a hike and enjoyed the nature. The trail is covered with small stones and experienced little ascent slope while we hiked. we reached an intersection and then continued on blue blazed trail. The trail was very narrow and has lot of curves. Could not see the trail ahead until we reach the end point of the curve. We were descending down the trail with much ease and reached big stone steps (Stairs as the name suggests). After climbing down the stairs and hiked for few yards we reached our first view point. It was amazing to see the valley of the mountain covered with huge trees and bushes. We descended further reached the second point and our last point of the trek by 12:07 pm. It was almost the similar view as of the first.

We sat on the huge rock over there in the shade of huge trees. There was constant cool breeze all over the place and we relaxed there to have our lunch. we enjoyed the view, cool breeze, nature while having lunch. We started back to our parking around 12:35 pm. now we were ascending the narrow trail and could feel the heaviness due to lunch. Slowly we ascended the trail, sweating due to heavy lunch. We crossed all the intersections once again. we were hiking with ease as we reached the easy patch( straight trail with shade). The slope increased as we were reaching the destination and our pace was reduced. Slowly we continued further and reached the parking lot around 1:41 pm. we did few exercises for stretching and then left for home. We saw a small bear on the hill while we were driving along Skyline Drive. We halted near a local store on one of the state roads for a cold fruit juice. As we were on state highway we saw a fox on the passing-by farms. After a long time was lucky enough to see one. we reached home around 4:35 pm. It was a memorable trek with great views. All is Well.