The Devil's Bathtub via Devils Fork Loop
Last summer, some friends told me about the Devil's Bathtub. The other day I finally had a chance to make the 2.5 hour drive and seven mile hike...
Living near Galax, I have to say I am blessed with my proximity to different features in the southeast. I don't live far from the towering views of Grayson Highlands or the Blue Ridge Parkway. I live very close to the New river and many streams that feed into it. And in just a couple hours, I can be at the trail head for places like this!
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En route to this trail, I got to see some nice views of the Blue Ridge Mountains just north of Abingdon.
The trail head is just off of High Knob Road in between Gate City and Norton Virginia. There is no service in this area, so I recommend caching this area in your map application should you need it. See the map below or click here:
To get a little more detail on the trail itself, click here for Trails.com's guide. The seven mile loop meandering through the forest is for sure the way to go! You will really get away from all the people and just be one with nature for a while.
The first thing you'll notice when hiking the loop is that the trail can be rough going sometimes. There will be downed trees and branches causing you to do a little crawling around. Also, since I was most likely the first person on the loop today, there were MANY spiderwebs that landed strait onto my face. I used my tripod to block them as much as I could but it didn't help out too much.
After walking a little while the forest opens up just a bit allowing for a little more visibility.
Below you can see a stump as the growing ground for many plants.
And of course some nice Fungi...
While your first creek crossing is right at the start, many of them are very small. All of the large ones aren't until the last few miles(after the bathtub).
Once you get within about a mile or so from the Bathtub, you'll notice a small swimming hole on your left with a decent sized cascade tumbling into it. It is STEEP and SLICK getting down here, which is why it is really handy that people have had the brains to tie a rope at the top to help people get down.
The photogenic-ness of this little cascade is hampered by the fallen trees. Maybe if I am feeling ambitious when I return in the fall I will bring a hacksaw.
I made the assumption that the trail I left to get down to this little cascade would meet up with the creek at some point downstream. Fortunately I turned out to be right and didn't have to backtrack up the creek. So I bailed on the trail and started walking down the creek.
While I was shooting the area below, I started to feel something on my ankle, when I looked down I saw an ENORMOUS crawdad! Now, I realize that it was most likely really little, but looking into water magnifies so it looked HUGE! After jumping up in fright, I tried to find it to take a photo but I was hidden somewhere waiting for its next victim.
Moving further down the creek now..
Some really nice cascading water here...
A short video of this cascade.
Then, before I knew it, I went from casually walking down the stream to being waste deep and on my tiptoes to keep my bag above the water!
If you see this huge rock wall, you have made it to the bathtub(it's just around the corner)
And now for the good stuff! The Devils Bathtub is a photographers dream. Rushing water, a big colorful pool, leading lines EVERYWHERE, and remember that big rock wall? It makes a really nice backstop for your scene here.
Trying some different compositions here in changing light...
A short video from above Devils Bathtub.
Below is a shot taking in the whole scene. The cascades on the top lead into the Devils Bathtub, and then meanders down towards the bottom of the image. This really is a nice place to photograph. SO many lines and features!
Now looking away from the Devils Bathtub downstream towards the large swimming hole. Setting up for this photo I took one step forward, my foot slipped, and I was almost taken away by the rushing water! I was lucky I had my tripod set up and in a sturdy enough spot to hold my weight!
The chute of water in the above photo leads into the large swimming hole in the below photo.
On the rocks I spotted this little guy crawling around...
Before I left I just felt the urge!(and wanted a photo with a person in a swimming hole) I used the Magic Lantern to shoot these.
It was nice to finally wash all those spider webs off of me! But the water was way too cold to stick around too long. I bet on a hot summer day this place gets plenty of traffic. Cool river water during summer heat is one of the best feelings a guy can experience. Today was warm, but not really 'swimmin' hole' hot.
After this, I was done. Two more miles to the car with a bunch of creek crossings. If you don't want to get wet, this ain't the hike for you! If you aren't really up for seven miles, you can just take a left at the fork in the trail at the start and go straight to the Devil's Bathtub, that would be about a four mile total hike. You can't go wrong either way.
Heading home through scenic southwest Virginia, back to the real world I went..
