White Oak Waterfalls

We had done hike on white oak Waterfalls on 26th june 2016 . It is located in shenandoah national in Virginia State.

Hike Location
Name: white oak Waterfalls
Distance: 100 miles from Richmond(approx)
Total hiking distance: 4.8 miles(approx).
Altitude: 1200 ft.
Hike Members: Me and my wife.

Hiking Experience: We started around 7:30 am in the morning. It was sunny climate with cool breeze. We reached the destination (parking lot of White oak) by 9:48 am.  There were lot of cars in the parking lot by the time we reached there. The start of the trail was good and it was leading direct into the jungle. The trail is covered by huge trees on both the sides. Initially we hiked down the path and soon we could feel ourselves in the middle of the jungle. We have not found many people during the hike even though there were lot of cars at the parking. Due to heavy rainfall the previous two days, the trail was little slippery and the wet stones on the path glittered with sun rays coming through the gaps of the big tree leaves.  We followed the blue trail mark and slowly the slope of the trail increased. After hiking for another 0.6 miles we reached the a wooden bridge and water flowing beneath it. The climate is sunny but due to the shady trees it was a very good atmosphere for hiking. we soon reach intersection with another trail(horse trail). We continued on our trail . we were able to hear the sound of water in the stream that was flowing on the left side of trail. As we hiked further, there were wooden steps bit steep. We climbed the steps slowly enjoying the scenic view of the forest. We reached a big spectacular wooden bridge with a huge water stream flowing under it. we crossed the bridge and hiked further. There were huge rocks on both sides of the trail and now the trail got little wider and we could feel the elevation gain.

We could hear the sound of the waterfalls as we hiked.  We could see water from water falls flowing on the huge rocks towards our right( after crossing the bridge the waterfalls are now towards our right). We went ahead enjoying the water splashing on the huge rocks covered with moss. We came across another small bridge and view of waterfalls from this bridge was amazing. After hiking for quite sometime along the straight path we reached the top of the mountain (start poing of the falls) by 11:52 am. The waterfalls is huge and the altitude is great. It was awesome view of the waterfalls with water flowing like thunders on the big stones and glittering due to sunshine. We could see couple of fellow hikers at the top . we sat at one of the huge stones just beside the falls and had our lunch around 12:00 noon. The water in the falls was very cold, clean and pure. The falls were very beautiful and enjoyed watching them while having lunch. We could feel the water sprinkles of the splashing water on the rocks. It was a great experience and delight to be there on such a wonderful day. we started back around 12:29 pm and just before reaching the parking lot (around 0.5 miles from parking lot) we saw a small bear in the jungle walking slowly into the jungle. It might not have noticed us. We reached parking lot around 2:30 pm. We left to our home and reached by 4:56 pm . Overall it was a good hike, great view of the waterfalls and thoroughly enjoyed. All is Well.