50 Best Day Hikes Near DC: Old Rag

On the 4th of July Hal and I decided to brave a new hike we've heard wonderful things about since we moved here. Old Rag is probably the most famous hike in Virginia, and now I understand why. Old Rag is in the Shenandoah National Forsest, and is the closest thing to a mountain that exists out here, so it felt a little bit like home driving into the park.

We had heard the hike was pretty strenuous, and is 8.8 miles long, so we came prepared for a long hike. There are a couple of ways you can hike old rag. If you go up the more strenuous way - the rock scramble the hike can be a bit faster, but is much more strenuous than the longer more gradient sloped path.

We opted for the rock scramble, since those are usually our favorite types of hikes, and I'm really glad we did.

We stated out the hike in oppressive humidity as we made our way through the switchbacks up the mountain. There was almost no breeze through the trees since the tree cover was so thick. We were literally dripping with sweat.

And just like a switch the weather changed. We were probably halfway up the mountain when it started trickling rain. At first we didn't really get wet. The trees offered protection so we kept hiking. And then it started raining harder and harder, and we got wetter and wetter.

Around this time I started to feel sick. Not really sick, but lyme sick. I kept cycling through moving at a crawl speed, getting a burst of more energy so I started moving normal back to moving at a snails pace. We finally made it almost to the top where the trees gave way to rocks and everything opens up to a rock scramble, right as the rain began to stop.

The rock scramble was both of our favorite parts. It definitely wasn't always easy navigating the path. I literally crawled through short sections. There were lots of time we had to hoist ourselves up narrow cracks, down through narrow cracks and up stone steps to make it to the top.

But it was all worth it. I get so tired of feeling limited from Lyme that I wasn't about to let it stop me from doing something I've wanted to do for a long time. We made it to the top and it was just gorgeous. It sure felt like a win.

We decided to go back down the easy way, and part way down we ran into people that we started with, but they took the longer easy way, and we took the harder faster way. The easier way down was honestly kind of boring. For a majority of the trail it was just a gravel mule path. I'd definitely recommend trying your hand at the rock scramble.

5.5 hours from when we started and after buckets of sweat, buckets of rain and the most beautiful view I've seen in the East, we finally finished. This by far my favorite hike I've done in the area, despite what a struggle it was to make it to the top. I've heard this hike can get really really crowded, but due to the holiday and the rain we saw less then 10 people on the entire hike, which just made it even more perfect.

The Narrows & Orderville Canyon: Zion National Park

After hiking Observation Point in full sun we were ready for another water hike since the day was supposed to hit 96 degrees. The Narrows is a really famous hike in Zions, and we could definitely see that at the start of the hike. The trail starts out paved as we made our way down to the water. There are a collection of free walking sticks people have left behind if you feel so inclined. I started out with one; sometimes it was helpful, and sometimes it was more of a hindrance.

The hike starts out walking directly up the river. Then you criss cross the river to sand bars on either side as you go up.The water felt really nice on such a hot day. It may not look like it from these pictures, but The Narrows was SO crowded. There was just a steady stream of people coming down and going up. School groups, families, it felt like everyone and their sister was there.

We made our way up to where a side canyon joins up with The Narrows. it's called Orderville Canyon. We didn't really know what it was at the time and decided to explore and break away from the crowds. I'm SO glad we did. This ended up being one of my favorite hikes during the entire trip. There was way less people, and there were fun obstacles to overcome.

At this point I had to stop and clean out my socks and shoes. They were so full of little pebbles from walking up the river. The water in Orderville Canyon was much warmer, and less strong than in the Narrows.

                        

This Canyon was way less crowded, and the people that were in it, seemed more adventurous hikers. So we took our picture on a log and headed up the canyon.

We made our way to this large pool of water. Which finally didn't have a way of getting around it. We held our camelbacks above our head and swam through the pool.  We made our way through another large pool of water and were able to avoid getting wet before ending up at the area in the video below. Charles found that someone had carved out some hand and foot holes into the rock. With his long legs he popped right to the top. Meagan and I possibly needed a literal butt push to make it to the top. The video is us on the way back.

                                       

We then shortly made it to the picture above. This waterfall at the back of the picture was impassable without repelling gear, so we had to turn around. We did meet this really cool group of young men and their leader who was probably the best hiker I've ever seen. He helped us navigate some paths to prevent from getting our bags fully submerged.

On the way back Meagan and I finally jumped in the big pool of water together. It was a little frightening to think I might not jump far enough and hit rock, but when Meagan counted down I finally jumped.

I wish I had pulled my camera back out on the way back down The Narrows. There was almost no one around us and I finally got why people love The Narrows. It was just stunning. The height of the cliffs was so impressive, and with the sun coming down, it lit up areas and illuminated the canyon.

I can't recommend enough going up Orderville Canyon, and the group we met actually hiked it from the top down, which would be really fun. And definitely try to be in The Narrows in the early morning, or early evening when the big crowds are gone, it makes it all so much more magical.

North Rim, The Grand Canyon

I've wanted to visit the Grand Canyon for years. I can't believe I lived so close and never went. We tried to go for my birthday a few years ago, but it didn't work out. I'm so so glad we got to go this year. It's only 3 hours from Zion, so it was the perfect addition to our little trip.

We started out the day by driving down from Kanab, where we stayed the night before. Our first plan for the day was to hike a short part of the North Kaibab Trail to the Coconino Overlook, which was about 1.5 miles total. The whole trail was a set of switchbacks down to the overlook. Because the north rim gets more rain and snow, there was a lot more vegetation than I was expecting. As we weaved down the trail we would every once in a while get these amazing views.

And when we finally made it to the overlook the views were pretty stunning. We met a group who were hiking rim to rim for a bachelorette party, which gave me a new life goal.

After this short hike we essentially drove from overlook to overlook to take in as much of the canyon as we could. I had heard the north rim wasn't as good as the south rim, and that it can be hard to see all the way to the bottom.

But I cannot tell you enough how amazing the north rim was, so instead I'll try to show you in pictures.

I think we read a sign that said the north rim is twice as wide as the south rim. So you may not be able to see the Colorado as well because of the expansiveness of the side canyons, but it is so much more impressive than I ever imagined. We went to Cape Royal Trail and Roosevelt Point, I think both of which you can see the Colorado from. We got to eat lunch sitting on the rim of the canyon. It was more perfect than I could ever imagine, and a great way to end our trip.

Observation Point, Zion National Park

This was both mine and Hal's first time to Zion National Park and we were really excited to see what it was all about. We camped on free BML land about 10 minutes outside the park. There are established camping areas and many of them have fire pits already.

I woke up to this beautiful site on my 28th birthday. Meagan and Charles had decorated the whole campsite, including their car for my birthday. We were slow packing up this morning, but we finally made it into Zion and the visitor center to see if they had any permits to hike the Subway. Unfortunately they didn't so we settled on hiking Observation Point, because why do Angel's Landing when you can do the highest hiking tail in the park, and look down on Angel's Landing?

We started off about noon, which was really really dumb. We started out a 6 hour hike, which has full sun most of the way at the hottest part of the day. Dumb move on our part. Especially because the hike starts out like the below. Switchback after switchback after switchback. Bleh.

I really didn't know if I could make it up these switchback. I could do one full switchback before I had to stop and catch my breath. It didn't help that we were gaining elevation fast, and it was real real hot outside. Finally I stopped and sat down and we all ate lunch earlier than planned. And I felt about 8,000 times better and was able to make it to the top of this first set of switchbacks, to the amazing view below. The cactus flowers at the top were so beautiful.

The trail then turned and went around the back of the mountain, and the hike started another set of switchbacks up the back side of the mountain. Luckily portions of this were in the shade so we could get short breaks from the heat. Every time we would come around a corner from the back of the mountain we were greeted with stunning views.

Then finally the hike turned around to the front side of the mountain again, in the final set of switchbacks to the last ascent. This was in full sun and we felt like we were so close, so this part felt so miserable.

We finally made it up to where the rock relented to red sand, and the end of the switchbacks. From here it was mostly flat, and we could see straight across where we were going.

FINALLY we made it to the top. The view was absolutely stunning. We could see so far down the valley. We could see Angels Landing from above. There weren't any people hiking it...since well, it was the hottest part of the day and not everyone was silly like us. We had the top to ourselves for a few minutes which was really cool.

On the way back we went to the other side of the plateau and the look down was kind of terrifying. I definitely felt all 6,500+ feet we were up in the air.

The hike back down I'm sad to say wasn't as easy as the return often is. The very steep ascent became a very steep descent, which was rough on knees. Good thing I had just read this article, which saved my toes from being hurt.

We were planning on hitting up Hidden Canyon on our way back, but none of us had any water left, and we were a bit spent from the 6 hours we had spent hiking to the top and back, but it's probably doable if you start earlier in the day, and plan a little better than we did. This was a pretty magnificent way to spend my day turning 28.