Bottoms Creek Gorge

Dogs No Dogs

Features Fall Colors · Waterfall · Wildlife

This route follows a meandering path through Bottom Creek Gorge, highlighting some of the most scenic parts of the area. Though some trails are steep, a variety of loops make it easy to customize the route.

Forming the headwaters of the Roanoke River, Bottom Creek Gorge boasts spectacular scenery including the second highest waterfall in Virginia, virgin hemlocks, and hundreds of wildflowers.

Bottom Creek is a powerful mountain stream that forms a stair-step series of broad-basin waterfalls known as the "kettles." One of the headwater streams of the South Fork of the Roanoke River, Bottom Creek boasts a 200-foot high waterfall.

The trails are well-marked and color coded (blue, yellow, and red denoting the Duval Trail, the Johnston Trail, and the Knight Trail). This loops takes hikers on a great tour of the area.

Flanking Bottom Creek are forests of mixed hardwoods (tulip poplar, maple, oak, hickory) and upland meadows. Five rare species thrive in this habitat.