west virginia

Dolly Sods (WV) 7/30 - 8/2/23 (3 nights) CalTopo says about 27 miles and 3000' of elevation Book: The City and The City by China Miéville (I clicked on the wrong title on my Kindle and decided that maybe I was "supposed" to read this book on this trip. Ended up being an awesome backpacking...

This high-altitude plateau is more reminiscent of Maine, not the Mid-Atlantic. Open meadows and bogs, big views, deep forests and cascading creeks make this a backpacking wonderland. I missed peak colors by less than a week thanks to the last dying gasps of Hurricane Delta but it was still...

I'm catching up on trip reports for my blog and thought some here might like to see some photos of the Southeast Dolly Sods Wilderness (WV) March 11 - 13 2019 (2 nights) 2019 bag nights: 2 I had permission to get away for 4 nights over my spring break. The weather looked cold and dry in the...

Dolly Sods w/ Kids 7/18 - 7/21/18 (3 nights) 2018 bag nights: 21 My wife's brother asked at the beginning of the summer if I was interested in meeting up in the Dolly Sods this summer with our kids (his oldest is 6). I had already been planning on taking my three (5, 7, 9) on a trip or two, so...

Dolly Sods Wilderness is a 17,000 acre wilderness area in West Virginia, about 3 hours from the DC Metro area. It's described as a high altitude plateau and includes a variety of different ecological zones (high meadows, bogs and forests are all present). While I've never been there, I imagine...

I’m a Westerner. I was born in Las Vegas (which explains a lot) and have lived in Salt Lake and Boise, Idaho, attending undergrad at Boise State. When I came back east to DC for grad school, I scoffed at the so-called mountains. More like hills. But over the years I’ve come to appreciate the...