Otter Creek Loop Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway near Monroe VA

So, today I sauntered Otter Creek Loop Trail. This trail didn’t really impress me much. There just wasn’t much to see on the trail. The prettiest part of the trail is the lake you see when you get out of your car. Head to the southern parking area and there are steps to see the waterfall. Otherwise the trail is a little bland. There is a Lookout spur trail so you can see the lake from a higher elevation. There is a short little spur trail that will take you to the top of the falls and a sign that says to not walk out onto the dam. A little further down the trail, the trail ends at the creek. You have to go over some rocks and a log to get to the stepping stones to get across the creek. If you have poor balance you may not want to take the chance to cross. You could end up in the water.

-length: 1 miles (says the map), 1.6 miles from parking lot and back taking all apur trails. (Loop Trail)

-time: 1hr 25 minutes (realistically can be done in 30 minutes)

-elevation change: 866ft

-trail difficulty: easy, may be moderate for some

-trail: side by side

-3-O’s friendly(Old, Overweight, Out-of-shape): friendly-ish. There are some spots that take you up, bit the real concern is rock hopping the creek, and climbing on some logs

-bikes: no

-pets: yes, must be on leash

-wildlife seen: Canadian Goose, lots of butterflies

-amenities: parking lot, trail map, benches, pier

-necessities: none, unless you want to use trekking poles

-summary: I think this is an OK trail. I would not go out of my way to hike it, but the lake and waterfall are nice.

There are multiple places to park at this quaint little spot: the one right here, across the street, and one a little ways down that accesses the other end of the trail. This little lake is calm and peaceful, but a popular place among travellers. The sidewalk is actuall part of the trail. I moved forward from here, and kept the lake on my right. There is a nice little fishing pier you can fish from or some will fish directly from the bank. The trail is pretty flat until you get on the other side of the lake. As you can see in the picture there is a hill on the otherside of the lake with a pretty steep embankment. So you know there is some up you have to climb in the future.

The sidewalk fades into a small path that starts to take you around the lake.

There are few bridges to cross. Shortly you will come to a trail marker. It will show you the direction to the campground, and it will point you in the other direction toward the Ranger station at James River. Just keep following the trail as it leads around the lake.

This is what the up looks like.

After you climb the up, and get on top of the hill, you will come to a sign. It points to an overlook that is only “150 ft” away. As you take that path you will see that it forks. It doesn’t matter which way you take, because it just loops around. But, as you’re looping around you can get some different views of the lake. Most views are obstructed by some form of branch in some way. When you get back to the sign, just take the other direction and it will put you down by the lake.

Once you get to the back side of the lake, you will see a couple of footbridges that you need to take. The path leads up, but luckily there is a bench that overlooks the lake (there are benches throughout the trail.)

Shortly you will see a path off to your right, it goes down a semi-steep embankment, and has a big sign that says “do not go out onto the dam”, but some do it anyway. If you can’t handle steep hills, do not go down it. Stay safe.

You will see this huge rock, the path goes just to the left of it. Behind it you can see the round stepping stones that take you across the creek. The picture below the big rock shows the path leading to what looks like a dead it but it doesn’t. In the large picture your see that rock jutting out at over the water. You have to step on that, then those little rock heads peaking out just above the surface. That’s why I was saying earlier, if you don’t have good balance you may end up in the water. It may be easier to start with the falls and then head down the trail the opposite way of which I came. But as you see in the bottom pics, there is still a log and the stones you have to traverse.

As you can see there is a sign, but not much of a path. The stepping stones are not that crooked in the water, I was (standing on a couple of rock heads). I love the pictures up stream especially the bottom one with the stairs on the side. The Ranger station is only 0.6 miles away. There they have bathrooms, and two smaller trails.

There are some really nice places, once you get across to get pictures of the waterfall, or by the waterfall. A nice place to just take it all in. There will be stairs on your left that lead to the southern parking lot.

Once up the stairs you will find a trail kiosk. As you head back toward the car you will have a view of the top side of the dam, and a nice view of the lake. Now! you’re all done.

It’s a nice little hike, shouldn’t really take more that 45 minutes on a good saunter. There were also a whole lot of butterflies (Monarchs) out this day. I tried to get a picture of them, but they wouldn’t land anywhere for me to get a picture. Anywho, I’ll see you on the next excursion.

Come and See