Taming the Trails

For years the Big Butt Trail did not get much in the way of engineering attention from the National Forest Service. I used to hear stories about the scrambling you would encounter if you hiked to Point Misery and beyond. No easy Class I hiking, but Class II stuff and a little scrambling where you couldn't help but use all four limbs to advance up the trail.

But in the past few years the National Forest folk have paid good money to engineer the trail to file off the rough patches. At some of the more difficult sections they did slight re-routes and put in very stout stairs so that you can continue onward and upward without having to result to climbing up rock walls like a spider monkey.

In some ways, I'm relieved. But I always did enjoy a scrambling route now and again. That's gone from this particular trail.

These stairs are really solid!

The cliff faces and boulders that once had to be climbed hand over hand.

These staircases kick ass. Solid as they make 'em.

Stairs!

I've encountered some impressive staircases in my visits to state parks and National Forest sites. Some of the most stunning efforts at staircase building have been in West Virginia. Sometimes I'm just completely amazed at the expense and feats of engineering that have gone into placing these stairs to make access easier to some of these peaks, gorges, and waterfalls.

Here are a few of them:

These stairs were actually under construction. When completed, they take you to the Holly River Falls, which you can see through the trees. A most spectacular waterfall. Located in Holly River State Park in West Virginia.

These were National Park stairs. To take you to an overlook in the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

These stairs are quite organic and were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and are located at the Backbone Rock Recreation Area in Tennessee.

These were probably the longest set of stairs I ever climbed. They're in the Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia and take you, of course, to the bottom of this spectacular canyon. This is merely one leg of many.


Again, another more organic set of stairs, this one located in Blackwater Canyon in West Virginia.

I like the way this staircase blends with the rock grotto in Beartown State Park, also in West Virginia.

One of the most amazing feats of engineering I've seen for National Forest staircases is at the Falls of Hill Creek in West Virginia. In addition to this very extensive set of staircases that take you past several impressive waterfalls, there is a tremendous metal staircase near the very end that must have been extremely difficult to install. Here it is:

This was something to see. It was bolted to the wall of the canyon so that you could gain access to the last of the waterfalls on Hill Creek.