ADVENTURE / GRAYSON COUNTY, VIRGINIA
RELAXING WEEKEND AT THE SCALES
The Scales • Grayson Highlands • Virginia
Dean and I headed up to the Scales on a rainy, dreary Friday afternoon. On the way to the trailhead, I noticed the creeks were swollen from all the recent rain the area had received, and I couldn't help wondering what kind of challenges the trail up to the Scales might throw at us.
As we started up, I shifted the Jeep into 4-Low and let it crawl its way up the trail.
The road into the Scales is known for being rough and rocky, but it isn't particularly technical. With a lifted vehicle, some patience, and careful tire placement, it's fairly straightforward. Sections of the road also double as horse trail, and it's not unusual to meet riders along the way, so taking it slow and keeping an eye ahead is important.
The trail itself gave us no problems that afternoon, but about halfway up I noticed the Jeep was running hotter than usual. It wasn't overheating—the temperature would climb until the fan kicked in and brought it back down—but it was enough to keep my attention. Nothing to panic about, just something to watch during the weekend and investigate once I got home.
As we got closer to the top, the woods finally began to open up and we rolled out into the broad meadow at The Scales. After spending the whole drive surrounded by wet forest, suddenly being out in the open felt like we'd arrived somewhere completely different. The clouds and fog were still hanging low over the mountain, but we had made it.
By the time we reached our campsite, the rain had stopped for the moment, so we quickly got the Jeeps positioned and started setting up camp while we had the chance. With more rain threatening, the priority was simple—get everything set up and get ourselves dried in.
A PLACE CALLED THE SCALES
Standing in that big open meadow, it's easy to wonder how a place high in the Virginia mountains ended up with a name like The Scales.
The answer is cattle.
Long before this was a trailhead and camping area, cattlemen drove livestock into the high country around Pine Mountain to graze during the warmer months. Livestock scales were eventually installed here, allowing cattle to be weighed before making the long trip back down from the mountain. That's where the name came from.
The open country you see today is part of that history. Livestock still graze portions of the high country, and the Scales remains a gateway into the Mount Rogers backcountry. The Appalachian Trail passes through here, other trails branch away in several directions, and horses are still a familiar sight.
It has changed from a working gathering place for livestock into a gathering place for hikers, riders, campers, and people like us looking to disappear into the mountains for a weekend.
USGS Trout Dale, Virginia topographic map, 1959. Based on 1954 aerial photography.
FRIDAY NIGHT
The rest of Friday evening was pretty uneventful—which was exactly what I was looking for.
Dean brought steaks, so I put those on the flattop along with some baked beans. We ate dinner while listening to the Atlanta Braves defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7–6 in ten innings at Camden Yards.
A good dinner, a good game, and good company made for a pretty great evening despite the rain showers that continued to come and go.
SATURDAY — BIG WILSON CREEK
I woke the next morning to hard rain and cool temperatures and was perfectly content to stay in bed listening to it hit the tent.
Eventually I heard Dean stirring and decided it was probably time to crawl out of my nest and make breakfast.
Bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, and biscuits were on the menu—ample fuel for the adventure ahead.
After breakfast, we decided to hike a loop I'd accidentally discovered during a trip up here last year. I've come to call it the Big Wilson Creek Loop.
It's about five miles and takes us around four hours when we're moving at a comfortable pace and stopping to investigate whatever catches our attention along the way. The loop includes three waterfalls, a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, Wise Shelter, and usually a pretty good chance of seeing some of the wild ponies.
We left The Scales around 10:30 and headed out on the Crest Trail. The morning was cool and overcast, which was just about perfect hiking weather after all the rain we'd had.
The trail immediately starts climbing away from The Scales. This part of the high country is covered with blueberries, blackberries, and crab apples, so there's usually something along the trail worth stopping to look at—or eat when the timing is right.
Once we reached the top of the hill, we took a short side trail toward an area where salt blocks are kept for the ponies and cattle that graze the high country. That's where we found the only pony we'd see during the entire hike. Considering how common they can be around here, I was a little surprised we didn't run across more of them.
From there, the trail began dropping into the valley. Eventually it intersected with the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail, where we crossed a small creek. With all the rain we'd had I was paying a little more attention than usual to every creek crossing, but this one wasn't anything significant.
We turned onto the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail and continued toward Big Wilson Creek.
That was what I really wanted to see.
After all the rain we'd had leading up to the trip, I had a feeling there would be plenty of water coming down off the mountain.
We continued along the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail toward Big Wilson Creek. Before we could see the creek, we could hear it.
Somewhere below the trail was the unmistakable sound of falling water. With all the rain we'd had, I knew it was worth investigating, so we left the trail and started bushwhacking down through the woods toward the sound.
The farther down we went, the louder it became. Eventually the trees opened enough to reveal the first waterfall, with Big Wilson Creek carrying considerably more water than I'd seen on my previous trip.
This is one of the reasons this loop usually takes me about four hours. Five miles isn't a particularly long hike, but I'm rarely interested in simply walking from one end of a trail to the other. If I hear something coming from down in the woods, I'm probably going to go see what it is.
We spent some time there taking photos and video before climbing back toward the trail and continuing along Big Wilson Creek.
The three waterfalls are actually fairly close together, so it didn't take long before we reached the second. This was the one I remembered being the most dramatic from my previous trip, but something had changed. Part of the falls had collapsed since I'd last been there, changing the way the water came through and leaving it considerably less impressive than I remembered.
I was a little disappointed, but it was also a reminder that these places aren't nearly as permanent as they sometimes seem. Creeks rise, trees fall, rocks move, and occasionally an entire section of a waterfall changes between visits.
The trail crosses Big Wilson Creek between the second and third waterfalls. After all the rain we'd had, there was plenty of water moving through the creek, but we made our way across and continued to the third falls.
After that, the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail begins pulling away from Big Wilson Creek. The sound of the water gradually disappears behind you, and the hike becomes something different again.
Once we left Big Wilson Creek behind, the next stretch was honestly pretty uneventful. We followed the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail through the woods, putting one foot in front of the other without much to pull us away from the trail.
That doesn't mean there was nothing worth noticing. Somewhere along this stretch Dean spotted some mushrooms growing among the wet leaves and decaying wood and some growing on a tree nearby. With as much rain as we'd had, the forest floor was damp and everything seemed to be growing on top of something else. A couple of them were unusual enough that I stopped to get some photos.
About halfway between Big Wilson Creek and Wise Shelter, the route makes a turn and we left the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail behind. From there we picked up the Appalachian Trail and started following the white blazes toward the shelter.
We stayed on the AT for roughly another mile before the woods opened into one of the boggy sections of the high country. Wooden walkways carry the trail across the wet ground here, keeping your boots—and more importantly, the trail itself—out of the worst of it.
Once we crossed the bog, Wise Shelter wasn't far ahead.
When we reached the shelter, we did what Dean and I seem to do whenever we come across one—we dropped our packs and our butts and took a break.
Wise Shelter was empty when we arrived, so for a few minutes we had the place to ourselves. The shelter is located inside Grayson Highlands State Park, and shortly after we arrived, a few day hikers showed up. They had some questions about this seemingly random structure they'd just discovered in the middle of nowhere, and Dean graciously answered them.
There was a trail register at the shelter, but we left it alone. We weren't hiking the Appalachian Trail; we'd just borrowed a piece of it for our loop.
After resting for a while, we put our packs back on and started the final leg of the hike. From Wise Shelter, we took the Scales Trail back toward camp.
By then we'd been out for several hours. We'd climbed away from The Scales, found our only pony of the day, chased the sound of waterfalls through the woods, picked up the Appalachian Trail, crossed the bog, and finally stopped here at Wise Shelter.
Now all that was left was the walk home.
And in this case, home was a campsite waiting for us back at The Scales.
BACK AT CAMP
Once we made it back, there wasn't much of an agenda. We'd already put in several hours on the trail, so we settled into camp and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.
At some point, I decided to take one more little side adventure and headed up the First Peaks Trail by myself. I'd hiked it before and remembered a spot above The Scales where I could get a good view of the camping area.
I climbed until I reached that spot and stopped. Going much farther would have meant losing the view behind the vegetation, and the view was really the reason I'd come up here in the first place.
That's where I took the photograph at the top of this story.
Then it was back down the trail and back to camp.
I cooked hamburgers and brats for dinner, with baked beans making another appearance. We ate, got the fire going, and settled in for another Braves game. There was some conversation here and there, but mostly we just sat around the fire and listened to the game.
After a day spent wandering through the mountains, neither of us needed much more than that.
There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night.
ONE MORE NIGHT OF RAIN
It rained again overnight.
By morning we caught another break in the weather—just long enough to make breakfast and get camp packed without too much trouble from the skies.
The rain returned on and off during the trip back down the trail, almost as if the weekend wanted to end exactly the way it had started.
And maybe that was fitting.
We hadn't come to the Scales looking for perfect weather or some huge objective. Sometimes the whole point is simply getting out there: taking the rough road into the mountains, setting up camp, cooking something good, wandering down a few trails, sitting around a fire, and seeing what the weekend gives you.
This time, it gave us plenty of rain, a swollen mountain creek, a few waterfalls, some good food, two Braves games, and a couple of quiet nights high on Pine Mountain.
I'd call that a pretty good weekend.
FIELD NOTES
The practical stuff from this trip.
Pine Mountain Road - 4.1 MI · 1 HR 10 MIN · JEEP
Big Wilson Creek Loop - 4.88 MI · 3 HR 56 MIN · LOOP · HIKE
ROUTE NOTES
4X4 ACCESS— PINE MOUNTAIN ROAD 613
Start / Finish: Route 613 → The Scales
Surface: Rocks, gravel, & dirt
Conditions: Wet and muddy. Rocky.
Notes: Lifted vehicle recommended. Stock Jeeps are ok. Watch for horseback riders
HIKE — BIG WILSON CREEK LOOP
Crest Trail → Virginia Highlands Horse Trail → Appalachian Trail → Scales Trail
Start / Finish: The Scales
Weather: Overcast, cool, wet from overnight rain
Highlights: Big Wilson Creek · waterfalls · Wise Shelter · wild pony · bog crossing
MAP & TRACK
HIKE — BIG WILSON CREEK LOOP
4X4 — PINE MOUNTAIN ROAD 613
Recorded outbound on an earlier trip
AREA MAP
CAMP
The Scales Campground
Primitive · First-come, first-served
Vehicle accessible
Water: none - bring your own. springs and creeks nearby; must boil and / or filter.
Toilets: vault toilet
Fee: none
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