Saint Mary's Wilderness

Saint Mary's Wilderness

The 10,090-acre Saint Mary’s Wilderness is the largest of Virginia’s federal wilderness areas. The tract lies west of the Blue Ridge Parkway between Milepost 22.1 (Bald Mountain Overlook) and Milepost 27.2 (Tye River Gap). The Saint Mary’s area was never logged. But although the forests may be virgin, rugged slopes and thin soil have not produced towering trees. Many trails in the area were once railroad grades; manganese and other mines operated from the early 1900s to the 1950s. The scenery is nevertheless impressive and ruins from the mining era are part of the appeal. Oak and hickory forests predominate, and the summits are covered with pitch pine, table mountain pine, bear oak, and mountain laurel. Barren talus fields appear as gray jumbles of rock on otherwise lush, green slopes. The Saint Mary’s Trail starts west of the Parkway in the vicinity of Steele’s Tavern and follows the Saint Mary’s River. Large pools below waterfalls, some 10 feet deep, attract dippers in the heat of the summer. The falls on the Saint Mary’s aren’t dramatic, but quartzite cliffs and large streambed boulders make the setting a scenic one. This wilderness is very popular. Regulations prohibit camping around the trailhead parking area, and campfires are banned in the vicinity and within 150 feet of the trail from there to beyond the falls, about 2 miles. Groups are limited to ten persons. Weekdays are the best time to visit during the warmer months. Luckily, that kind of popularity is absent in the upper part of the wilderness. Parkway hikers have easy access to the scenery below—and quick escape to the less-popular area above. The upper Saint Mary’s Trail climbs gradually up the valley, where two trails connect to the Parkway. Deer, turkey, grouse, and a respectable population of black bear call Saint Mary’s home. Trout are prevalent in the Saint Mary’s River, although an increase in acidity from acid rain and related phenomena is having a negative impact on at least one species of tiny native fish.

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