The Duncan Knob Hollow hike is essentially the same circuit as the Duncan Knob Hike, except starting from the other side of Middle Mountain. This hike is also longer, with several excellent multi-tent camping sites, and is accessible in the winter and late spring months when FDR674/VA211 is closed.
Start south on the orange blazed Massanutten Trail as it winds along the valley on the east side of Little Passage Creek. Cross a small wooded footbridge placed over one of the side streams, and come to the first of three crossing points on Little Passage Creek in 0.7 miles.
After crossing Little Passage Creek, pass the second campsite on the opposite bank (the first campsite is 100 yards from the trailhead). Continue up the valley on the orange blazed trail and pass a small seasonal spring in another 1.0 miles. In 1.1 miles from the spring is the best multi-tent campsite on the circuit, right on the banks of Little Passage Creek. This campsite has a large fire pit with several stone seats.
After passing the campsite cross Little Passage Creek, then back again, and continue 0.3 miles to the intersection of the blue blazed Gap Creek Trail. On the left/east bank of Little passage Creek is another multi-tent campsite with a large fire pit and stone seats.
From the orange blazed Massanutten Trail, turn right uphill on the blue blazed Gap Creek Trail for the steepest section of the route. In 0.8 miles arrive at the ridge of Middle Mountain, and third multi-tent campsite.
Turn right on the white blazed trail that leads up to Duncan Knob. In 0.1 miles there is a multi-tent campsite on the right of the trail, and single tent campsite on the left. In another 100 yards from these campsites enter the rock slide portion of the white blazed trail. The blazes can be hard to locate during the rock scramble to the summit. At the top of the rock slide, stay right to the Duncan Knob vista.
After returning to the saddle, and blue blazed Gap Creek Trail, turn right downhill on the west side if the mountain, and in 0.3 miles reach the intersection of the yellow blazed Scothorn Gap Trail. Turn left on the yellow blazed trail and in 0.6 miles pass through a small clearing. In 1.0 mile from the clearing reach at the four way intersection of the Massanutten Trail. The Massanutten Trail comes in from the left and continues straight, and the Scothorn Gap Trail turns right.
Turn left uphill on the orange blazed Massanutten Trail and arrive the ridge line in 0.7 miles. At the ridge there is a nice vista point 100 yards off the trail to the left/north. Continue downhill 0.4 miles on the east side of Middle Mountain as the orange blazed trail steeply descends to the valley, then makes a turn back to the left/north where the descent is less steep.
From the left turn, continue on the trail for 1.8 miles back to the intersection of the Gap Creek Trail. From this point continue straight on the orange blazed Massanutten Trail, retracing your steps across Little passage Creek three times, and arriving back at the trailhead and VA675 in 3.1 miles.
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Reviews For The Duncan Knob Hollow Hike (5 Most Recent)
This was a great location for beginner backpacking. It is very secluded, yet moderately close to civilization in case of an emergency. If you do not want to carry your gear all the way to the top, there are several campsites well within 30 minutes hike of the camping area.
Getting there and parking: When arriving at the trail head from the North (Rt. 66, Front Royal, etc), you first pass the Roosevelt Camp recreation area sign on the left. If you keep going, you'll find the Massanutten trail head on the right (note, the parking picture was taking from the opposite direction, facing north). If you then continue a few more yards up the hill, you will come to the camping area parking lot (gravel) on the left. Coming out of this lot, you will see an alternate entrance to the orange-blazed Massanutten trail continuing uphill to the left (north-bound). Return to the Massanutten trail head sign across the road to catch the south-bound trail, which will take you to Duncan Knob Hollow. Google directions are a little confusing (as previously noted) towards the end of this trip. It doesn't much matter whether you stay straight or turn left, both 678 (Fort Valley Road) and 675 (Camp Roosevelt Road) will take you to the same location as long as you continue to head south. Go compass!
The hike: We started at 11:30 AM, and reached the summit of the white trail a little after 2:00 PM, stopping for a 15 minute lunch. The first 3.1 miles (from the beginning of the hike to the intersection of the orange and blue trails) is very tame. I would put it at a 1.5 on the difficulty scale. There are some loose rocks and a bit of mud, but for the most part it's pretty flat with some stream crossings. We easily completed this section in 1.5 hrs. The blue blazed section is decidedly harder, and includes four switchbacks. Despite some downed trees due to recent storms (and earth quake?), the trail is still very well kept and intact. It took us a full hour to complete the last mile of the hike. The top of the blue blazed trail has some beautiful hill-top campsites. The wild flowers were in full bloom.
Scramble: The white portion of the trail looks intimidating, but it's actually not too bad. At first we thought we should circle to the left, because there was an abandoned reflective tarp located there however, it's much easier to go straight up. Watch out for loose rocks make sure you test them with your feet before hoisting yourself up. Also, I found my fingerless gloves were invaluable during this portion!
Camping: We ended up leaving all of our overnight gear in the car during this hike, and only carting it out to the campsite afterwards. We used the first campsite, located almost exactly 100 yards down the trail from the trail head on the right side when you're heading southwest. There is a skinny tree stump marking the turn. This site has a great fire pit with nice flat stones and logs around the edge, and a wooden bar up in the trees for hanging food away from the bears. When we arrived, there were no water sources in the immediate vicinity.
Next time we plan on camping at the top of Duncan Knob. Here's to hoping for some late autumn warmth!
By:
ec
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, June 18, 2011
This was a pretty good overnight hike, and a lot more isolated than I was expecting given the rating on hiking upward. We only saw one other hiker on Saturday and a few hikers on Sunday as well as a couple of people on horses on the lower orange section of the trail. As someone else said, the blue section of the trail can be pretty tough if you are carrying a lot of weight (which I was - there was some redistribution between my buddy and I on Sunday morning). This was especially true because we got confused about the parking spot mentioned on the site and ended up on the wrong side of the road in a parking lot. This led us to heading uphill for about a quarter of a mile in the wrong direction on the Massanutten trail before concluding that our hike was a lot harder than the topo lines on our map were indicating!
One other thing to mention - the bugs are horrible. There were swarms of gnats and mosquitos which were completely undeterred by bug spray. Bring long sleeve shirts and pants if you are camping (also for all the thorns on the hike itself). Keep an eye out for snakes - we didn't make it to the second overlook because a huge timber rattler was hanging out on the path. I wasn't terribly keen to ask him to move.
By:
Julie
Rating:
Date of Hike: Thursday, June 16, 2011
Did an overnighter in the middle of the week. Took the family this time, what a great hike. The views from Duncan Knob were fantastic. We camped at the second site. I was a dissapointed at the shape the campsite had been left in. There was tinfoil and an empty pack of smokes in the fire pit, banana peels on the ground and horse crap just outside the site. Word to those that don't clean up, "Other people don't want to pick up your crap!" On the plus side, there was plenty of fresh water available. The hike out to the Knob is a trip from this site. The bugs were very bad. My son put a towel over his head which worked much better than the bug spray I was using. For anyone that plans on camping at the second site, there are a number of Whippoorwill's near this site. I thought this was just a cute little songbird. They started singing at 9pm and did not stop until 2am when the rain started. Next time I will bring ear plugs, these little birds are loud. Long and short of it, be prepared for some minor issues and this is a great hike.
By:
lbryan
Rating:
Date of Hike: Friday, April 29, 2011
The Duncan Knob Hollow hike is beautiful right now. Clumps of blooming wild iris, lady slippers (quite rare!), early azaleas, wild geranium, and so many dogwoods that we stopped pointing them out. Plus the outstanding views from Duncan and Strickler Knobs if you decide to add in the 1.5-mile Strickler Knob out-and-back. Backpackers should be aware that right now there is plenty of water at the Peach Orchard Gap campsite (the big one at the intersection of the Gap Creek and Duncan Knob trails). The trail begins to get soggy about 2/3 of the way up the big incline on the way to the campsite. If you listen for it, you will hear a stream running close to the trail in at least two places at this point. When you get to the last big turn before the campsite, there's a small pond with a clear cold stream running into and out of it a short bushwhack to the left of the trail. It's no more than about 20 feet from the trail and probably less than 200 yards from the campsite.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, October 16, 2010
Great weather for a hike over the weekend. We camped at the third site just prior to the intersection for the trail to Duncan Knob. First thing to know is hiking into this campsite is no short hike, particularly if you are packing heavy. Additionally the hike up Duncan Knob should not be taken lightly as you climb rocks to get to the top. As stated by many others the views are great once you reach the top. The campsite was great with many places to pitch tents. The water flow was ok, enough to clean, boil and wash but I recommend bringing drinking water with you. Even at this time of year the bugs were still a little problem-bring bug spray! The fire pit and seating area required a little bit of work as the fire only seemed to heat the trees. We dug the pit out and cleared the area between the pit and stone seats. In the dark trying to walk around the back of the pit was dangerous because of the boulders on the ground. The seating area and pit are much more camper friendly now. There is plently of wood in the area for burning. We did see quite a few other groups over the weekend but it was far from crowded out there. Overall it was a great weekend and a nice place to camp and hike.