Douthat State Park is one of Virginia's jewels. Voted as one of the nations 10 best, the park has over 43 miles of trails. With Blue Suck Falls/Tuscarora Overlook and the Beards Mountain loops, the park has two beautiful day hike circuits. The vistas and overlooks at the park are some of the best in the Old Dominion.
Although there isn't any camping on the trails in Douthat State Park, there are over 75 campsites in two camping areas near the lake, as well as a large group camp area. Douthat State Park is a great place to either tent or trailer camp for a couple of days, and hike the multiple loops available in the valley.
From the parking areacross Wilson Creek on a paved road, then shortly pass the Beards Gap Hollow Trail that will be the return route. Continue up the paved road and in 100 yards enter the main section of Campground C. Turn left uphill on the yellow blazed Tobacco Ridge Trail and in 0.5 miles reach the highpoint of the trail and a overlook of Douthat Lake. Continue along Tobacco Ridge Trail for another 0.5 miles as it descend to the intersection of the blue blazed Blue Suck Falls Trail.
Turn left uphill on the blue blazed trail immediately crossing a stream and in 200 yards pass the yellow blazed Huffs Trail on the right. 0.2 miles from the Huffs Trail intersection reach the intersection of the Laurel View Trail on the right. Stay left remaining on the blue blazed Blue Suck Falls Trail and in 0.3 miles pass the yellow blazed Locust Gap Trail that comes in from the left. Remain straight on the blue blazed trail is it becomes steeper and rockier for the next 0.2 miles before arriving at Blue Suck Falls.
From the falls, the trail turns right and passes the Blue Suck Falls connecter trail that descends steeply on the right in 120 yards. In another 100 yards pass an overlook where the trail makes a turn back uphill to the left. 0.1 miles further the blue blazed Blue Suck Falls Trail turns left as the yellow blazed Pine Tree Trail continues straight.
Continue uphill on the Blue Suck Falls Trail as it switchbacks four more times before arriving at the yellow blazed Tuscarora Overlook Trail in 0.9 miles. Turn left downhill on the yellow blazed trail passing the intersection of the Tuscarora Overlook Trail continuation in 0.3 miles, and reaching a small cabin at the Tuscarora Overlook in another 0.1 miles.
From Tuscarora Overlook, return back to the last intersection and turn left on the yellow blazed continuation of the Tuscarora Overlook Trail. In 0.4 miles the yellow blazed trail ends at the orange blazed Stony Run Trail.
Turn left downhill on the orange blazed trail as it makes eight sharp switchbacks before passing through a thick area of rhododendron and crossing Stony Run in 2.1 miles.
Continue downward on the Stony Run Trail for 0.7 miles re crossing Stony Run and then arriving at the intersection of the yellow blazed Locust Gap Trail. Turn left slightly uphill on the yellow blazed trail as it winds around the valley before arriving at the silver blazed Beards Gap Hollow Trail in 0.8 miles.
The yellow blazed Locust Gap Trail turns left uphill, and the silver blazed Beards Gap Hollow Trail turns right downhill. Turn right downhill on the Beards Gap Hollow Trail for 0.9 miles where it veers right onto a gravel road. In 200 yards after joining the gravel road pass a closed gate and arrive back at the paved road for Campground C. Stay right re crossing Wilson Creek back to the parking area.
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Hiker
Reviews For The Blue Suck Falls Hike (5 Most Recent)
First, let me thank the designers of this web site... what a wonderful resource!
Now for the hike. I'd like to just add a few additional notes. The trail is indeed everything promised in the previous reviews. Also, if you're bringing the family, there's a great playground just before the dam (down near where you park the car) and also a sandy beach on the lake, a fantastic restaurant, etc. This makes for a wonderful all-family day trip. In my case, the wife and kids play on the beach while the dog and I hit the mountain.
Great views, beautiful trail.
However, Douthat state park is looking to position itself as a destination for mountain bikers. To that end, they've recently improved and widened all of their trails. On the plus side, this means that two hikers can walk abreast on most parts of most trails, which is nice for groups. On the minus side, this means that you occasionally run into cyclists (who are usually quite polite), and that the trail surface is mostly rocks and such, rather than the softer forest loam and pine needles and such that I really enjoy hiking on. For longer hikes, my tender feet can't handle all those rocks.
So, it really all depends on what you're looking for.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Sunday, May 25, 2008
We did this lovely hike while staying two nights in one of the Lake Douthat Cabins over the Memorial Day weekend. The trail is clear and well marked and the directions from Hiking Upward are spot on. The views from Overlook Rock and Tuscarora were amazing, and we could just see the lake through the leaves. The rhododendron stand and the latter portion on the Locust Grove trail were particularly beautiful. Blue Suck falls was impressive as there was quite a bit of flow due to the recent rains.
We started hiking before 7 am on sunday and only saw a single other person (a mountain biker) the whole time.
If you do this hike and are feeling hungry afterwards, I can't recommend the Lakeview restaurant enough. It's about a 1 minute drive from the trailhead and is open fridays, saturdays, and sundays. Try the ribs or the barbecue, both were delicious.
By:
Frank Ian Ryan & Andy
Rating:
Date of Hike: Friday, March 21, 2008
A terrific day-hike on beautifully maintained, well-marked trails ... Your long climb up the Blue Suck Falls is rewarded by one glorious vista after another. Before the trees acquire leaves, a hiker often views three or four ranges of the Virginia Alleghenies. We can't wait to go back to Douthat State Park to hike some more, and maybe bring our mountain bikes! FYI for those who are camping, local rules prohibit open fires before 4 pm until April 31 (I think), meaning your morning may start out pretty chilly.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, December 29, 2007
We took advantage of a relatively warm Winter day to do this hike. Due to the abundance of wet leaves on the trail, we did it in reverse of what is depicted here (we did the falls at the end, not the beginning) and had a great hike. Without all the leaves on the trees, good views start almost immediately, although the finest is of course from the cabin at the Tuscarora Overlook. Although we were worred about mud due to recent rain, this particular trail is unlikely to develop much mud due the the composition of the soil on Middle Mountain, so keep this in mind if you end up hiking just after a rain - it's a good choice for that. Our group of four moved fairly quickly along the trail and finished the hike in 4 1/2 hours including 15-20 minutes at the Overlook.
By:
B. Gordon
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, May 26, 2007
I hiked this with my friend on Saturday after reading Paul's review of it last week. This was well worth the 2.5 hour drive from the West End of Richmond. The Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron were blooming all over the place. Don't expect the Falls to be like Crabtree Falls, there was just a trickle flowing. I am sure after a good rain it is a little more dramatic. The Falls are not the draw of this hike. The hike up to the top was pretty exhausting and if you can hold out, wait and have your lunch at the cabin at the Tuscarora Overlook. You will have a hard time getting back on the trail as the views from the cabin are as good as it gets. The low, thin clouds broke just before we got to the cabin and then we could see for miles. Bring plenty of water, we each finished our two 1 liter bottles just before we finished the hike. We started the hike around 9:45am and finished around 3:45pm. This was a little longer than the hike estimate but only because we had a hard time leaving the cabin and the great views!!!!
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