Every organization we link to: local tourism offices, the state and federal agencies that manage the land, the nonprofits and clubs that keep access open, and the universities doing the research.
West Virginia has roughly 1.5 million acres of public land and a handful of places that carry almost all of the attention. The consequence is that a great deal of very good ground sits nearly empty, usually for one of three reasons: nobody has heard of it, the road in is gated or rough, or it is undeveloped and has nothing to advertise. Those are the places below — of them across regions.
Almost Heaven Swings
What is published about the mileage, and what is not
Dolly Sods Wilderness has 47 miles of trail. Three of those trails carry published figures: Red Creek at 6.4 miles, Blackbird Knob at 4.7 and Rohrbaugh at 3.6. No mileage is published for Raven Ridge, and no total, elevation gain or difficulty rating is published for any loop combining them.
So treat any loop distance you have seen quoted elsewhere as unverified until the Monongahela National Forest confirms it. The forest manages the wilderness and is the agency to ask which trails and junctions are currently signed, and what a given connection actually looks like on the ground.
This is not a technicality. Trails here are unblazed by design and junctions are frequently unsigned, so a loop is a decision you make repeatedly rather than a route you follow.
Bear Rocks: the north edge of the plateau
Bear Rocks Preserve is the northern edge of the Dolly Sods plateau, owned by The Nature Conservancy and sitting at about 4,000 feet. The ground is bare Pottsville sandstone slabs, one-sided spruce shaped by decades of prevailing wind, and blueberry heath dropping east into the Allegheny Front with a 3,000-foot view over the Potomac Highlands.
Walking here is over open ground rather than through forest, which is why it reads as the natural start or finish for a loop. The slabs face east, and the record calls this the most photographed sunrise in West Virginia. Getting the picture means arriving in the dark, which in turn means navigating faint trail before light.
Blueberry and huckleberry ripen across the heath in late summer. The preserve is Nature Conservancy land rather than national forest, so check its rules before you range far from the slabs, and keep off the heath where a route lets you.
Forest Road 75 and where you leave the car
Forest Road 75 to Bear Rocks is rough gravel and slow, and it is the most notorious forest road in the state. Allow real time rather than estimating from distance, and check Monongahela National Forest road status before you drive, since Highlands forest roads are variously rough, seasonally closed and unkind to low-clearance cars.
Park only where you are told to. Illegal parking is the single most common cause of access loss at West Virginia trailheads and put-ins, and a lot of access in this state exists because volunteers maintain relationships with landowners. If the lot is full, go somewhere else.
Drive times here exceed what a map suggests; sixty road miles can take two hours because the roads follow creeks and ridges. Fuel and services thin out badly in Pendleton and Randolph counties, so fill up deliberately and carry more food and water than the day requires.
Navigation is the loop
Trails on this plateau are unblazed and junctions are frequently unsigned, and the site's own safety guidance puts Dolly Sods in the category that requires map, compass and the ability to use them. A GPS track is a convenience, not a substitute, on open ground where faint tread splits and rejoins.
Cell service is absent across most of the Highlands and the wilderness areas. Download offline maps before you leave pavement, and treat a satellite messenger as reasonable rather than excessive for a wilderness day here. Backcountry rescue often means volunteer squads and a long carry-out.
Build the loop so that you can abandon it. Red Creek runs tannin-brown and its crossings are unbridged, and after rain they can be impassable, which can close the far side of a plan while you are standing on the near side of it.
Wind, cold and no water
The wind at Bear Rocks is relentless and nothing breaks it. The preserve's own advice is to bring more layers than the forecast suggests, and the wider plateau is worse: weather changes fast and hypothermia is a real risk in any month. Dolly Sods regularly runs twenty degrees colder than the valleys, with wind and driving rain in June.
There is no potable water anywhere in the wilderness. Carry what you will drink or treat what the creek gives you, and allow for the fact that a long open crossing in wind uses more than a sheltered walk of the same length.
Ticks are active any month above freezing, so permethrin-treat clothing and check afterward. On rock, watch your hands: timber rattlesnake and copperhead occur statewide and favor warm ledges.
Two owners, two sets of rules
A loop that starts at Bear Rocks and drops into the wilderness crosses from Nature Conservancy land onto Monongahela National Forest. No permit is required to hike on either, but the camping rules belong to the forest: camping is prohibited within 300 feet of Forest Roads 19 and 75, except at Red Creek Campground, so a dispersed night means walking in.
Camp on durable surfaces only. High-elevation sphagnum bog and heath take decades to heal from a single season of trampling, and the record is blunt that the bogs here recover slowly. Bare rock, established sites and forest duff well away from wet ground are the choices.
Unexploded ordnance warnings are still posted at wilderness trailheads, left over from the plateau's use as a live-fire artillery range in the Second World War. The signs are not decorative.
When to walk it
Mid-May and June put the high country at its peak, with warblers on territory in the spruce and green arriving late at this elevation. Late summer brings ripe blueberry and huckleberry across the heath, and it is the season when going high is the sensible answer to heat below 2,500 feet.
September and October give clear days, cold nights and color starting on the highest ridges in late September, and they are also the busiest weeks of the year statewide. From October through January the national forest is heavily hunted, so wear blaze orange. Winter buries what little tread exists, and unblazed trail under snow on open plateau is a serious navigation problem.
Whatever month you choose, sunrise is the reason most people are standing on the sandstone at Bear Rocks. Work backward from first light through a slow gravel drive and a dark walk, and add margin at both ends.
Reach people planning this trip
Placement alongside guides for outfitters, guides, shops and lodging.
List your business hereQuestions
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