Big House Mountain and Little House Mountain - House Mountain Reserve, VA

Описание: This hike took place on Saturday, August 24, 2019 in the House Mountain Reserve, VA.

I traveled to Virginia with my friend Jonathan to knock out a few significant mountains for multiple Virginia peakbagging lists. Our main hike on Saturday was in the House Mountain Reserve, a beautiful mountain massif protected by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation near Lexington. The hike is straightforward, park at the trailhead and follow Trail Head Lane past private residences to begin the House Mountain Trail. This forest road gradually winds around the south side of Little House Mountain ending in a high elevation saddle between the two peaks. This saddle area is open for camping and also has a shelter and latrine. You can choose to summit either peak from this junction. We chose to hike Big House Mountain first to knock out the ranked peak on this hike.

The Big House Mountain Trail steeply climbs towards Goat Point, a prominent rock outcrop on the southwest side of Big House Mountain. This outcrop has panoramic views west and south of the Colliers Creek valley. I also managed to spot two turkey vultures on the cliffs below and get pretty good shots of them on the ledge. From Goat Point we continued on the trail past Tabletop Rock, a unique rock formation in a massive boulder field, and followed the trail towards the summit. Big House Mountain (3,645 feet) is the 28th most prominent peak in the U.S., towering over nearby Maury River valley and Interstate 64.We explored the forest road north of the summit but turned around. It looks like we may have missed a series of cliffs based on the view we got later.

Instead of following the trail we used the forest road as a shortcut, bypassing the rocky, steep area around Goat Point. Back at the saddle we took a water break and then began the ascent up the Little House Mountain Trail. The trail levels out near the summit of Little House Mountain (3,386 feet) and follows the spine of the mountain north for 0.8-mi through multiple boulder fields. The trail ends at the Little House Mountain Overlook, a phenomenal viewpoint with cliffs on the west, north, and east side of the mountain. From these perches you have incredible views of Big House Mountain, the peaks around Goshen Pass and the Maury River, and the Virginia Blue Ridge from southern Shenandoah National Park to the Peaks of Otter. For me, it easily ranks as one of the top 5 viewpoints in Virginia. After trying to pick out every peak I could along the spine of the Virginia Blue Ridge, we made our way back to the car to wrap up an excellent day of peakbagging.

Distance - 10.1 miles
Elevation gain - 3,480 feet
Time - 6 hours and 20 minutes

Hike location
https://goo.gl/maps/dJPF2mR46VEqDivv5

Hike report
https://www.hikingupward.com/OVH/Hous...

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