Hightop Mountains

We had done hike to Hightop Mountain on 3rd August 2019 . It is located in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia State.

Hike Location

Name: Hightop Mountain
Distance: 81 miles from Henrico (approx)
Total hiking distance: 5.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 1480 ft
Hike Team: me and  my wife.


Hiking Experience: We woke up around 4:45 am. The hiking trail is one and half hour distance from home. We started around 6:05 am.

The weather was little cold and along with cool breeze. We saw fog on the grass, on trees along our way. Due to fog sometimes we could not see the road clearly. Normally we can not look at the sun directly but that day because of the fog  we could see shape of the sun. We saw many cows and one deer on our way. We reached our hiking place around 7:32 am and parked our car on left side of the road. Then we went to the right side of the road and entered into the trail. There we have to look properly for trail road because it was almost covered with trees which was not easy to recognize. This trail was very narrow that one after another has to walk and not side by side. Slowly the trail started getting steep and wide as well. The trail was surrounded by many big trees and some kind of small flowers on both sides. Some of the trees were fallen on the trail, we went under them. Then after 20 minutes we reached another hightop mountain parking area on the skyline dr. On the other side of the road we have our trail. This trail was very nice and beautiful. The trees on both sides of that trail are almost connected and looks like an arch.

Few patches of the trail had very smooth and soft sand as though  it was like nature's carpet in the jungle. We saw many big rocks on either side of the trail. Then we walked the rocky patch for sometime. Gradually the trail was getting steep. We saw various different flowers and there was a pleasant smell in the air. We thought it was from some kind of trees or flowers. Then we reached two camping areas when we were almost near our first view point, but no campers were there even though it just looked like campground. Then we reached the first view pint, it was big and wide but it was almost covered with trees it was impossible to see the full view of the valley from there. So next went to second view point and we reached there around 9:25 am . It was spectacular and beautiful. We saw many mountains, valleys and clouds.  It was almost sunny but with very cool breeze. We liked the weather over there.We wished to live in such places. Then we had our breakfast around 9:35 am. After watching spectacular scenarios, we started to parking lot around 9:45 am. We were going down the steep, remembering all the things what we saw and talked  while we came through the same trail.

We sang so many song while we were going down. We were hoping that the amazing smell would come again. We crossed the second parking area and then we saw some people just started their hiking. Then we saw couple of people were doing the same hike. While they were crossing us they said that they saw a bear. We were so much excited about that bear. We had been checking all over the way we were going. Then suddenly after 10 minutes we saw really huge bear standing just to the right of our trail. I got a full glimpse  of the bear along with four legs and my wife saw only it's face, and we both took speed walk backwards from that big bear. We were frightened. My wife got almost freaked out. We did not expect the bear to be so huge and that too so close to the trail. It was almost like standing in front of us. Then after 5 minutes we decided to go forward and started our walk very very slow. We were checking all of our sides while we were going. We lost the bear and never saw it again. It might have went deep into the jungle. Then around 11:09 am we reached our car. We started to home around 11:12 am. We reached our home around 1:00 pm. This hike gave so many memorable moments. We saw many beautiful sceneries. We had a terrible moment with that bear. We enjoyed a lot. All is Well.

Photos