New River Trail State Park: Austinville Trailhead (Blog Hike #1072)

Trail: New River Trail
Hike Location: New River Trail State Park, Austinville Trailhead
Geographic Location: southeast of Wytheville, VA (36.85116, -80.91966)
Length: 4 miles
Difficulty: 2/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: September 2025
Overview: A double out-and-back on a rail-trail featuring interesting railroad constructions.
Park Information: https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/new-river-trail
Hike Route Map: Shared Publicly; Click This Link to View
Photo Highlight:

Hike Video: (coming July 17, 2026)

Directions to the trailhead: East of Wytheville, take I-77/81 to US 52 (exit 80).  Exit and go east on US 52.  Drive US 52 east 5.2 miles to Austinville Road and turn right on Austinville Rd.  Drive Austinville Rd. southwest 2.6 miles to SR 636, and turn left on SR 636.  Cross the New River, and drive another 0.2 miles to the signed Austinville Trailhead parking lot on the right.  Pay the park entrance fee and park in the large gravel lot.

The hike: For my general comments on the New River Trail, see my hike from 2019 that started at the Jackson Ferry Shot Tower a few miles downstream from this trailhead.  While rail-trails do not make for the most interesting hiking, the Austinville Trailhead is an above average place to start a hike on the New River Trail because interesting destinations can be reached in either direction.  This double out-and-back goes to both of those destinations while passing some other interesting sites, thus making a hike on a rail-trail as interesting as possible.

Stile at Austinville Trailhead

            Start by walking across SR 636 and through the yellow metal stile, heading east on the New River Trail.  The New River's floodplain lies to the left and the hillside rises to the right when you walk in this direction.  The trail surface is fine black gravel, and the trail's former life as a railroad grade ensures that all elevation changes are imperceptible and all curves are gradual.

Old lead mine?

            If you look to the right at 0.35 miles, you will see a hole in the cliff that looks like an old mine shaft.  While I could not find any information about this specific mine, many lead mines operated near Austinville in the early 1800's; they provided material for making shot at the nearby Jackson Ferry Shot Tower.  A metal grate prevents access today, and for good reason: entering old mines is a dangerous proposition.

Austinville Tunnel

            At 0.5 miles, you reach the main point of interest in this direction: the old Austinville railroad tunnel.  Though only a couple hundred feet long, on a hot day the tunnel will be several degrees cooler than the outside air temperature.  On any day the chiseled rock walls make for stark scenery, and a bench near the tunnel entrance makes a nice place to sit, rest, and rehydrate.

Austinville Trailhead

            The trail continues east for 28 more miles to Pulaski, but this hike turns around here and starts heading west toward the point of interest in that direction.  Re-cross SR 636 and pass the official Austinville Trailhead, which is marked by a signed shelter, picnic tables, trash cans, and a port-o-let.  The forest consists of many black walnut, oak, and sweet gum trees with some sycamore and a few red cedars.  I saw 3 deer when I hiked this trail a couple of hours before sunset on a cool but humid evening in early September.

Old industrial area

            Soon you pass a large white concrete post marked P29.  These mile markers appear throughout the New River Trail, and the P indicates that the distance given is from Pulaski, the trail's eastern terminus.  At 1.2 miles, you pass an old concrete industrial area on the right.  Although I am not sure what this area was, railroad tracks atop the concrete link it to this trail's railroad days.  Maybe the concrete platform was a resupply or loading point.  The trail curves right to get closer to the river, and a low-level waterfall can be seen downhill in the river if the trees are bare enough.

Trestle over New River

View downstream

View upstream

            After the trail curves left, you reach the trestle over the New River at 2.4 miles.  The trestle is nearly 80 feet high, and it gives great views both up and down the river.  The view upstream with Poplar Camp Mountain in the background is my favorite view on this hike.  The trail continues west, but the trestle is a good place to turn around.  Retrace your steps 1.6 miles to the Austinville Trailhead to complete the hike.

Chattahoochee National Forest: DeSoto Falls Recreation Area (Blog Hike #1071)

Trail: DeSoto Falls Trail
Hike Location: Chattahoochee National Forest, DeSoto Falls Recreation Area
Geographic Location: north of Dahlonega, GA (34.70786, -83.91444)
Length: 2.2 miles
Difficulty: 4/10 (Moderate)
Date Hiked: May 2025
Overview: A double out-and-back to Lower and Upper DeSoto Falls.
Area Information: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/chattahoochee-oconee/recreation/desoto-falls-recreation-area
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=989695
Photo Highlight:

Hike Video: (coming May 1, 2026)

Directions to the trailhead: From Dahlonega, take US 19 north 17 miles to the signed entrance for DeSoto Falls Recreation Area on the left.  Take a soft left to enter the area, and then turn left into the day-use falls parking lot.  Park here.

The hike: The North Georgia Mountains contain a plethora of famous and scenic waterfalls.  Amicalola Falls impresses with its sheer height, Raven Cliff Falls impresses with its cliff-cutting action, and the waterfalls in Tallulah Gorge impress with their water volume.  Often overlooked among the region's waterfall options is DeSoto Falls, perhaps because of the more famous and identically named waterfall in nearby Alabama.  Yet anyone willing to come to Chattahoochee National Forest's DeSoto Falls Recreation Area after a good rain will find 1 nice waterfall and 1 show-stopping waterfall as scenic as any in the region.

            The DeSoto Falls Recreation Area protects 650 acres around its namesake waterfalls and along scenic Frogtown Creek.  The Recreation Area features a cozy 23-site campground in addition to some picnic tables and, of course, the trails to the waterfalls.  The area's trail system does not connect to any other trails, so waterfall enthusiasts will have it all to themselves.  The hike described here uses every trail in the Recreation Area, and it features both of the waterfalls the Recreation Area has to offer.

Trail leaves parking area

            Start at the big information board near the front of the day-use parking lot.  The wide dirt trail descends gradually on a broad switchback as it passes through the Recreation Area's picnic area.  Numerous picnic tables sit here, and several of them were in use on the warm and humid Tuesday afternoon that I came here.

Footbridge over Frogtown Creek

            After a few hundred feet, you reach the campground road.  Angle left to start walking along the paved campground road, then turn left to cross Frogtown Creek on a nice wooden footbridge.  Immediately after crossing the bridge, you reach a trail intersection with options going left and right.  Each of these two trails leads to a big waterfall, so we will go both ways eventually; the hike to Lower Falls is shorter but steeper than the hike to Upper Falls.  I turned left to head for Lower Falls first.

Frogtown Creek

            Next comes a short flat streamside section with Frogtown Creek on your left, but at 0.2 miles you begin climbing the 2 switchbacks that lead to the Lower Falls viewing platform.  At 0.4 miles, you reach the viewing platform for Lower Falls.  Lower Falls drops 30 feet via several cascades, and while it would be the main waterfall attraction on many hikes, it is actually the lesser of the 2 waterfalls on this hike.  Lower Falls had plenty of water volume when I came here right after several days of rain, but it can become a trickle during a drought.

Lower Falls

            The trail ends at Lower Falls, so next you have to turn around, retrace your steps to the main trail intersection at the footbridge, and then continue straight to begin heading for Upper Falls.  The next segment is a pleasant streamside hike through forest dominated by maple and oak trees with some dying pine trees.  The mountain laurel was in full bloom when I came here in mid-May; the rhododendron was at least a month away from blooming.  Some poison ivy lives in the understory, but the trail is plenty wide to allow you to avoid it.  The campground is visible across the creek at first, and noisy US 19 can be heard everywhere on this hike except where it is drowned out by falling water.

Mountain laurel in bloom

            1.1 miles into the hike, the trail curves left to pass over a small hill.  A few lime green paint blazes mark the way, and you step over some wooden waterbars on this well-constructed trail.  At 1.3 miles, you reach the viewing platform for Upper Falls.

Upper Falls

            What a sight this waterfall is!  Water falls 120 feet in 4 distinct drops, but as with Lower Falls you have to come after a rain for Upper Falls to have enough water.  Upper Falls was fantastic when I came here, and it might be my second favorite waterfall in the North Georgia Mountains, behind Raven Cliff Falls.  The trail ends here, so your only option is to retrace your steps to the parking lot to complete the hike.