Best Hikes at Mount Rogers

Hikers, outdoor enthusiasts, and Appalachian nature lovers will find Johnny Molloy’s Best Hikes at Mount Rogers a must-have for their next expedition to the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. Drawing on Molloy’s own personal encounters and his past publications on the Mount Rogers area, this guide highlights what he calls the “can’t-miss” adventures of this regional treasure.
Outlining thirty-eight of the best Mount Rogers trail experiences, Molloy gives readers helpful insights and data, including trail distances, difficulty ratings, estimated hiking times, trail highlights and hazards, and elevation changes, as well as his own qualitative scoring on elements such as scenery, solitude, and family- and pet-friendliness. His trail descriptions are personable, direct, and precise, giving travelers and hikers a well-rounded and no-nonsense description of the area section by section. While seasoned hikers may recognize iconic Mount Rogers landmarks along the Appalachian Trail or the Virginia Creeper, beginning adventurists or those new to the area will encounter them for the first time—and find hidden gems as well.
Along with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shenandoah National Park, crown jewels of the Southern Appalachians, the Mount Rogers wilderness beams with biodiversity and life, a treasure not just for hiking but also for backpacking along rolling Appalachian ridges, fishing in pristine mountain creeks, and swimming in crystal-clear waters. Best Hikes at Mount Rogers highlights it all, offering readers a helpful companion to the challenges and rewarding experiences of Mount Rogers’s 154,000 acres of natural wonder.

Johnny Molloy is a freelance writer and the author of more than eighty-five outdoor guidebooks, including, Hiking Waterfalls Tennessee and Waterfalls of the Blue Ridge. His first book, Trial by Trail: Backpacking in the Smoky Mountains, was published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1996. A second edition was published in 2016.