North Fork Mountain is awesome! If you like beautiful views and awesome rock formations,
you will love this hike.
North Fork Mountain is in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. This report
covers a 9.6 mile section (done as a shuttle) hike starting at the Redman Run trailhead
and ending at the Northern end of the trail. The entire
North Fork Mountain trail is a 25 mile ridge trail. The South End of the trail is near
Seneca Rocks, WV and the North End is near Petersburg, WV. The best part about this version
of the hike is that the features and views continue to build as you go along.
From the Redman Run trailhead it is an easy slope up to the ridge. Follow an old
mountain road for a way, and then the single track trail cuts off to the right. As soon as you reach
the ridge, the views are available anytime! Just go about 20 feet to the Western side
of the mountain and you will be looking over a cliff across to the adjacent mountain range which
includes the Dolly Sods area.
First Overlook - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
The ridge trail is easy hiking with nice pines and rhododendrums. After 2.75 miles
along the ridge, you come to a unique rock formation near summit of the mountain.
The formations have some breaks in the rock that are like windows. Through these windows you
can look over cliffs and out across the mountain ranges to the West.
Looking Through Chimneys At Summit Rock - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
Views Anytime From Quick Hike To Ridge - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
After about another mile on the ridge trail, to the left is the awesome Table Rock.
This overlook is so beautiful it is stunning. It's as if when they formed the mountain
they said "why don't we put this beautiful little overlook station here that you can
walk right up to!". We saw the Peregrin Falcons flying in and out of their nest as
we gazed from the overlook.
Table Rock Overlook - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
After the Table Rock, you come to another overlook, where you can see the giant wall of rocks looking towards
the North towards Chimney Top.
As you continue on another mile, watch for a cairn on the left. Or alternatively,
you can stick more towards the top of the mountain in a bit of a nice bushwack through
some 'sort of' trails. Make your way to the Chimney Top! It is hard to describe how
cool the Chimney Top is. There are these wrinkly rock towers that are just huge!
There is a fairly easy way to get on top of one of the main chimneys. The views are
just gorgeous. As you look back where you came from, you see the long cliff walls that
have paralleled the ridge.
Arriving at Chimney Top - North Fork Mountain (return trip in April 2016)
From The Top Of Chimney Top - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
Looking At Chimney Top - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
On the 3 mile trak down, there are even more views to the left and out to a cool looking
mountain on the north end of the trail.
Last Overlook - North Fork Mountain, Cabins, WV
Overall, this is a moderately strenuous hike. However, the switchbacks down to the North end of the
hike are long, especially at the end of the day. It took us 8 hours but that was because
we took so much time enjoying all of the overlooks! It could be completed in far less time.
Landis Trail - A different option to get to the better overlooks on North Fork Mountain is to use the Landis Trail. The trail
is closer (about 2 miles) to the north end of Smoke Hole Road off Route 28 than is the Redman Run trailhead (about 9 miles). The
nice part of this trail is that you can do an out and back (without setting up a shuttle) and can still see the Table Rock overlook
as well as Chimney top in about a 6 mile round trip. Because the trail is shorter than Redman Run with approximately the same
elevation gain, it feels like more of a strenuous uphill. When you take the Landis trail, once you hit the main North Fork Mountain
ridge trail, take a right (head North) to go to Table Rock and Chimney Top. Taking a left will take you to the top of North Fork
Mountain where you can see the windows in the rock formation as described earlier in this report.
Hope this has been enjoyable and / or helpful to anyone reading it!!
Additional information about this hike can be found here:
http://www.midatlantichikes.com/id108.html
http://www.hikingupward.com/MNF/NorthForkMountain/
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