Campground Review: Hurricane, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia.

Carole and I have used a LOT of National Forest campgrounds in our years. Both when we tent-camped and after we got our Casita travel trailer. We have had almost uniformly wonderful experiences using the campgrounds in our National Forests, but some of them stand out above the others.

While not our all-time favorite campground, Hurricane--located in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area--is easily in the top three. What it might lack in some of the things some people expect in a campground, it more than makes up for in others.

As luck would have it, we were able to grab our favorite spot in the campground (#19). All of the sites have paved surfaces for your vehicles. We were able to back into our site with our truck and had much space to spare. There are no hookups (neither water, nor electric), so if you want to use electric appliances you'll have to have a generator. Also, fill up your onboard water tanks at home, or use a water spigot at the campground. These minor drawbacks (for some, not for us) are made up for in the campground's isolation from paved roads and subsequent lack of traffic and the peacefulness of the forested surroundings.

The campground has two bathhouses with flush toilets and warm water showers. But there is no dump station. Just a couple of miles down the road from Hurricane is Raccoon Branch Campground, another National Forest facility. It does have a dump station and it is open to campers at Hurricane.

We like this campground so much for many reasons. But at the top of our list is that it is very, very quiet. There is no noise from passing autos because the only nearby roads are gravel Forest Service roads and not heavily used. The forest is deep and lush, classic Southern Cove Hardwood. Plenty of trees of an amazing variety and lots of flowering plants in spring and summer.

There is no shortage of things to do here. I love to hike and there are hundreds of miles of amazing trails. You can access the Appalachian Trail from the campground. One can drive to Damascus and bike the Virginia Creeper Trail, which I very highly recommend. Start at the Whitetop Station and you can bike pretty much all downhill to Damascus. A very inexpensive and gorgeous way to spend part of a day. Grayson Highlands State Park is nearby, and the trails there make you feel more like you're hiking in Montana than in Virginia. Seriously. I have shown photos I've take above Massie Gap to people and they think I took them in the Rocky Mountains.

To our way of thinking, Hurricane Campground is one of the best options in the southeastern USA for camping. Trails. Quiet. Solitude. Waterfalls. Wildlife. Deep forests. What the heck else do you need?

Entrance to Hurricane Campground.

Our site was level. All we had to do was park and use the tongue jack. Level as could be!

Carole is always in charge of the campfire. She does about half of her cooking over the fire.

Unlimited firewood was provided free of charge by the campground hosts! They did this on their own. They had permission to cut up and split downed trees. Then the hosts would pile it up in a huge stack near the center of the campground. Take all you want!

Our favorite site: #19. Streamside.

Bathhouse with shower.

I didn't see much wildlife on this trip, but I did get this photo of a grouse.

A hike I took to bag a 4,500-foot peak. I got lost. This was actually taken after I'd gotten lost.

The Iceberg Lake Trail, Part I.

Probably the prettiest hike we took on the trip was the one to Iceberg Lake. It's a pretty darned popular day-hike in the Park, so one is rarely alone on the trail. Also, it's a relatively easy hike of ten miles round-trip with not a lot of climbing. There's a steep section in the first mile, but after that it's petty steady and easy going.

One thing that I can say about this hike is that there is a lot to look at. Some of the route passes through forest, but the lion's share is above tree line and through meadows and open country with limitless views. Since the surrounding peaks loom as vast walls of steep rock, you often feel as though you are in a tremendous amphitheater. This is completely true of the terminus of the hike in the huge glacial bowl where Iceberg Lake is located.

Iceberg Lake was obviously the location of a glacier in recent times. In fact, there's a pretty extensive snowfield that lies just above the lake, hanging on the rocky slopes even late into summer. And the lake is colored with "glacial flour" (finely ground rock) which is produced by glacial action and gives the water a striking emerald hue. In heavy snow years the lake stays full of the icebergs for which it is named, but since there was very low snow in the winter of 2014/15, we arrived to find only two very tiny icebergs floating around on the opposite side of the lake.

Also in normal years, the area is packed with wildlife. I'd been told that it was one of the best areas to see many of the Park's signature creatures. However, 2015 was anything but a normal year for Glacier National Park. We were lucky enough to have pretty clear skies. The forest fires were still holding off the day we made the hike and the air was barely tinged with smoke. It wasn't as clear as the previous day, but almost so.

As for the wildlife, we managed to see a grouse, several types of resident rodents, and a vast herd of Bighorn sheep.

Today I will post photos of the hike from the start until just before we arrived at the Lake.

I had stayed behind at the truck to work on my camera equipment while the others pushed on. So it took me  a while to catch up to them. Here was Andy and Bobby ahead of me as I struggled to find the rest of the group. The air was really clear that day and the views would stop you every few steps.

Scenery to die for.

Vast peaks rising all around us.

We happened upon this grouse. She was speaking to us constantly, or to her two nearly-grown chicks. She seemed very nervous to have us so near her babies, but the pair of youngsters hardly seemed to notice us.

This was the drop-off of a really high waterfall. But it was almost impossible to see it because it plummets into a very narrow chasm. Getting down to a spot where you could take an effective photograph would be difficult at best, and probably very dangerous.

As good a video as I could shoot considering my choices.

We got to a point where we could see ahead to the huge glacial cirque that hold the lake.

Nice shot showing the snowfields above the lake.

I like this shot. Indicative of the rugged terrain through which we were hiking.

And almost to the lake we looked up to see a truly vast herd of Bighorn sheep. The herd seemed to be composed entirely of ewes and lambs. If there were any adult males in there, I didn't see them. This is just a piece of the herd and is a crop of a telephoto shot. Currently I have only one low-quality telephoto lens and it frankly takes grainy photos at distance. When I can, I will purchase a better lens for long shots.

Skipping Ahead.

Okay. I don't want to get bogged down in a rut of boring travelogue. So, here's where I cut to the chase and post some animal photos.

Because, really, that was the main reason I wanted to take the trip to Glacier National Park. Yes, it was going to be cool to see the very last of Park's fading glaciers. To be sure, I wanted to say that I'd seen Glacier National Park while there were still a few glaciers in the damned place! And there they were, indeed. Pathetic, rocky, streaked with dirt and soot. I can say that I saw them before humans pumped so much carbon gas into the atmosphere that we had heated the planet to such an extreme that glaciers can no longer hang on the shoulders of 9,000-foot towering summits at the Canadian border.

Plus, I wanted to see the vistas. I got about three days of that sandwiched in between the days when fire smoke besmirched the great blue dome and made it impossible to see much of anything beyond a hundred meters. Once again, Mankind had so mucked up the planet that western droughts have become so severe and so prolonged that the states to the west of Montana--Idaho and Washington--were being swept with fires of truly mythic proportions. In fact, the fires in Washington state were truly engorged, one of them having become the largest in the history of Washington (over 400 square miles) while we were there. The smoke from it spread over the west and covered thousands of square miles. Between the rainfall that briefly cleared the skies and the time we left, that cloak of choking smoke covered our escape route from Washington clear down to Missouri. I am not exaggerating. It was that bad. Thank you, petrochemical industries of the western world.

So. My other main reason for hitting Glacier was the wildlife. All of my friends who have visited the Park have impressed upon me the wildlife superlatives of the landscape. They--to a man--had told me that it was the finest that the lower 48 states has to offer. I was ready to see Grizzly bears, mountain goats, Bighorn sheep, Pronghorn antelopes, Black bears, Marmots, Fishers, mountain lions, Golden eagles, Bald eagles, Moose...

I was chomping at the bit to see all of that glorious wildlife.

Alas, it was not to be. Apparently both the drought and the forest fires had combined to chase most of the wildlife high into the mountains. The huckleberry crop was not to be found this year in the lowlands, and so the bears--both species--had fled into the high country to find the sweet berries. Mountainsides that were normally (I was told) swarming with goats and sheep were barren of all movement.

I'm not saying the trip was cursed, but it was cursed.

We did eventually end up seeing some wildlife. The only animals that we saw in abundance were rodents and--eventually--Bighorn sheep. Of bears, we saw two. One adult very high on a mountainside in Many Glacier, and a lone cub grazing some of kind of berry in a big shrub along the Going to the Sun Road. Mountain goats? I never saw one in the Park, but Carole and Andy saw two. The griz never made its appearance, and neither did the majestic moose. One ranger told us of a beaver pond where we could hang out to see a mother moose and calf, but the two never showed. Instead we got the consolation prize of seeing a beaver.

All in all, it was still an impressive trip. Custer State Park in South Dakota delivered the big animals that Glacier did not. Also, the three days of clear skies that we did get in Glacier provided us with jaw-dropping scenery. Just not with much in the way of wildlife.

What this means is that I'll have to go back. Not next year. But maybe in two or three years. Let's hope.

One critter of which there was no shortage was Bighorn sheep. They were pretty much everywhere.

Along the roads...

In the back country...

And even in the parking lot at Logan Pass.

Baby Mountain goat in Custer State Park.

Pronghorn in Custer.

 

All of the bison we saw were in Custer.

Big bull.

Big herd.

We went to a beaver pond to spot moose, but only saw beavers.

Momma grouse on the Iceberg Lake Trail. She had two half-grown chicks.

Jay.

A gorgeous Hoary Marmot on the Highline Trail.

Golden mantled ground squirrel.

One of the dark red squirrels. This was the best shot I could get of one, since they were so active.

We got a huge kick out of watching the Prarie dogs.

This little chipmunk was taking a dust bath.

Another golden mantled ground squirrel.

This was the only adult bear we saw. He was very far away on a big mountain.

This bear cub was crawling around in this shrub eating the heck out of the berries growing on it. I don't know what the shrub is, but he was going to town on those berries!