3. DOYLES RIVER FALLS

(Upper Falls)

For our last day in Shenandoah National Park we picked this trail because there were not one, but two waterfalls! The round trip hike of 3.2 miles is moderate on the way down, but the return climb is STEEP! So steep it seems that you are pretty much at a half-jog the whole way down. Almost too quickly we reached the Upper Falls, from there we decided to bypass it because of the crowd and kept going until we got to the Lower Falls.

After taking our time on the sharp switchbacks, the 63 feet of water furiously spilling down the rockface came into our view. I charged toward the small landing beneath the falls, but was stopped dead in my tracks by what I though to be a live snake! I screamed!! Cody, my knight in shining armor, quickly came to my aid. Upon closer examination we realized it was not moving and was a little bloody–someone killed it. Strategically, we removed it from the path so no one would have a heart attack from having the daylights scared out of them, like I almost did.

(Small Cascade)

A little more cautiously this time I made my way down and set up my tripod to get a picture. I didn’t have too much luck here because the sun was shining directly on the top of the falls (overexposure), so I thought best to move on. On the way back out we stopped to see the Upper Falls, it was still crowded. The grotto-like setting was nearly impossible to capture without a moving subjects hopping into the scene. Somehow, I got lucky and was able to fire off a few shots.

(Lower Falls)

Midway, I remember thinking to myself, “This isn’t too bad!?” I even protested saying so out loud just in case I would be jinxing myself by doing so. Of course, I did! That’s where things started going “downhill”…..It was BAD, real BAD! I almost wanted to warn everyone we passed to turn back, especially when we came to a lady resting on a bench on the way down! She had no idea. Without saying a word, we trudged along. There were moments that I wanted to die or either pass out (just a tad dramatic), but without incident, we made it back to the trailhead.

In case you missed it:
The 3 Easiest Waterfall Hikes in Shenandoah National Park
(Part 1)