A View from the Buffalo

Buffalo Mountain, that it. This past Sunday the air in Southwest Virginia was crisp and dry, even by Autumn standards much less mid-July. It made for a perfect day to hike up a mountain. Once owned by Robert E. Lee and his brother Charles, Buffalo Mountain (located in Floyd County, Virginia) is now a 1140 acre nature preserve maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. A straight-up one-mile trail leads through the thick forest to a rocky summit of 3,971 above sea level, providing 360 degree views. On this day, I was able to see Pilot Mountain in North Carolina to the south, the Peaks of Otter to the northeast, Big Walker Mountain to the north and the Grayson Highlands (possibly Mt. Rogers and Whitetop) to the west.




From Buffalo Mountain, the Blue Ridge Parkway is just a short drive away so I decided to get a few more miles under my feet and hiked the Rock Castle Gorge Trail. Here is view from Rocky Knob of the valley 1800 feet below.

In Search of Truth

I'm not much of a story teller, so please forgive me.

Being a fan of natural landforms, I revel at the chance to see these wonders of nature in person. This website http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dunigan/landforms/ has been very helpful in locating landforms in my area. When I first discovered the website, I was amazed to find out that there was a waterfall very near here that measures an astonishing 475 feet. For comparison, the famous Fall Creek Falls measure in around 250 feet. Intrigued, I set out to find this legendary Buckeye Falls.


After and aborted attempt during the winter of 2003, we set out in the Spring fully loaded for an overnight trip. A black bear sighting left us a little shaky, but fortunately the bear ran away when it sighted us. A dirt road gave way to a horse trail that grave way to a foot trail. We set up camp near the creek right before the trail ended and we had to bushwhack. Now, with only my camera, two bottles of water and a limb saw, we were ready to tackle the rough part of the trail. Wear neared where we stopped the past winter and noticed a tree with a "B" and an arrow carved into it. My limb saw came in handy as we had to climb up a steep creek bed that was covered in thick brush and tree branches. Finally, we reached the top and this was our reward.

Buckeye Falls is not a roaring waterfall, but a nice cascade down the steep side of a mountain. It's hard to tell how high it is, but using points of reference in the photos, you can see it is quite the drop.