Hiking Carvins Cove

Hello and happy Sunday!! Michael and I finally got down to Carvins Cove this weekend to do the hike up above the water then we kayaked down below in the lake! It was a hot day but up on the mountain the breeze felt wonderful. We didn't hike all the way out to Hay Rock (8 mile round trip) because we had a bit of a time constraint and wanted to still have time to kayak below, so instead we decided to do a 6 mile round trip up to the first set of overlooks and back. The views were beautiful and we were not disappointed! The great thing about this hike is after the 3 mile mark the entire ridge line has view after view of the lake and surrounding mountains. This allows you to really tailor the hike to whatever length you want! Also the color of the lake from above is almost an alpine/turquoise blue which is so unusual for Virginia and we were lovin' in! Side note- if you hike all the way to Hay Rock you'll be rewarded with views of the entire lake! These pictures only show half of it.
Another fun thing was we saw so many little lizards on our hike. Tons of them! They would scurry across the trail and shoot up the side of a tree before pausing, blinking and watching us. We also saw a black snack that shook it's tail like a rattler and a bunch of cool plants and a deer. The trail constantly changes terrain from soft sand to rocks, to soft pine needles, back to sand, etc. and when you walk through the thick pines it smelled like Christmas (insert heart-eyed emoji here). Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera battery............ About two hours into our drive I got out my camera bag to put my camera together and set up the GoPro and I realized I had forgotten the batteries to my Nikon. How I do stuff like this, I'll never know. One of my favorite parts about hiking is taking little videos (especially when I'm with Michael) and taking pictures! I packed my camera bag the night before and I still forgot the battery. Ugh. Thankfully the iPhone's camera isn't too shabby so I just snapped a few pictures along the way.

HikingUpward rates this trail as a 4 out of 5 but I give it a 2.5 or 3 because the steep uphills are combated by well-made switchbacks that allow you to very gradually climb up the hill (I also gave it that rating after hiking it slightly hung over- don't judge me!). With that being said there are a few steep uphills but they only last for about 20-30 steps or so before flattening out again. To read more about the hike and for directions on how to get to the parking lot go here.

I hope everyone is having a good last few weeks of summer!