{"id":1755,"date":"2026-04-17T09:13:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:27:41","slug":"douthat-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/douthat-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Douthat 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again it was time for my spring “epic” road trip<\/A>. Last year I stopped along the way to spend a day at Douthat State Park<\/A> in Virginia. I decided that one day there just wasn’t enough so this year I planned two days to try and take in more of the park.<\/p>\n

This narrow bridge leading to the campsites always gives me pause:
\n<\/A>
\nAs usual the campsite accommodations were excellent. My “room” had a river (or creek) view (watch that first step though):
\n<\/A>
\nAnd there were flowers in the room:
\n<\/A>
\nIn fact, there were flowers Everywhere<\/I>! I saw lots<\/I> of butterflies taking advantage of them.<\/p>\n

But I came here to hike, so after a night in my hammock tent, it was off to see some sights.
\n<\/A>
\nAgain, as usual, I found well-marked trails. Yes, I was heading for the Mountain Top Trail:
\n<\/A>
\nAnd what a supertastical view from the top of that mountain! The picture doesn’t do it justice, it just reminds me of what I saw:
\n<\/A>
\nComing around to the Mountain Side Trail gives a view of Lake Douthat:
\n<\/A>
\nYa know, they always give some very good reasons to stay on the trails when hiking: don’t trample the plants, don’t cause erosion, and you’re Far<\/I> less likely to get lost if you stick to the trails. Some of the trails here add another reason: if you go off the trail, it could be a long time before you can come to a stop.
\n<\/A>
\nWhen I’ve gone even farther north earlier in the season, I’ve been a bit disappointed at not seeing any snow. This time I found some snow, in a corner of the mountain the trail was following:
\n<\/A>
\nAfter I completed that hike I was sprawled out at the table at my campsite when a Chipping Sparrow<\/A> came poking around. He went right under the table where I was sitting. I didn’t want to scare him off, so I just aimed the phone blindly to snap this picture of him:
\n<\/A><\/p>\n

The next morning, let’s do it all again!
\n<\/A>
\nThis day took me up the Blue Suck Falls Trail (I’ll have to ask how it got that name), which felt a bit like rock climbing in some areas:
\n<\/A>
\nAnd there we have the Blue Suck Falls itself!
\n<\/A>
\nContinuing up to the Middle Mountain Trail (which is actually a bit higher than the Mountain Top Trail) again provided some amazing views, including from Lookout Rock:
\n<\/A>
\nAs they say, what goes up must come down (unless you’re NASA<\/A>), so down the mountain to the lake:
\n<\/A>
\nThe lake flows out into Wilson Creek, which is a convenient handrail back to the campsite.
\n<\/A><\/p>\n

I think Douthat State Park is going to be a regular stopover on my northeast trips from now on. The facilities are excellent (well, the wifi at the park office could be a bit more reliable, but really the point is to disconnect), there’s lots of nature and trails, and there’s no cell phone coverage (I suggest taking a PLB or satellite communicator in case of emergency, and tell the boss to not even bother trying to call).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again it was time for my spring “epic” road trip. Last year I stopped along the way to spend a day at Douthat State Park in Virginia. I decided that one day there just wasn’t enough so this year I planned two days to try and take in more of the park. This narrow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1773,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildcorvid.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}