Tinker Cliffs

This week's Monday Morning Hike was to Tinker Cliffs, a half-mile-long stretch of the Appalachian Trail along the top of Tinker Mountain near Roanoke. Tinker Cliffs, along with McAfee's Knob and Dragon's Tooth, make up the "Triple Crown" hikes in Virginia.

There are two approaches to Tinker Cliffs - the Appalachian Trail or the Andy Layne Trail coming up from the Catawba Valley, meeting the AT at Scorched Earth Gap less than a mile from the cliffs. (The distance is in dispute. The signs say .5 mile, hiking web sites say .7 mile, our "Map My Hike" app measured .9 miles.)

In a photo, these steps don't look very steep, but that's deceiving! After a relatively flat start through a cow pasture and over two creek crossings, the Andy Layne trail ascends steeply for about a mile before getting to switchbacks that make the trail grade much gentler.

We had a pleasant walk through early-fall woods.

A bent tree provided a rest "bench". It reminded us of a bristlecone pine (but it isn't!).

Mushrooms growing in a hollow stump.

As the trail gets near the summit, it goes beside/beneath small rocky cliffs.

Tinker Mountain has a flat top, with a set of cliffs on the western side.

The view up the Catawba Valley. McAfee's Knob is the closest mountain, at the left.

The cliffs have a 180° view to the west.

USGS benchmark marking the summit.

We made it to the top! It was breezy and much cooler up here, so we had to put our jackets back on.

Rocky ledges are favorites of timber rattlesnakes. We left it alone, and it left us alone!