Hiking Bottom Creek: It's Easy and It's Pretty

The waterfall at the end of the hike is 200 feet up.

This is the view from the overlook.

The hiking trail is lush and wide.

Took in the Bottom Creek hike today with my hiking bud Janeson Keeley and found it to be relatively easy, pretty along the way and featuring a fine payoff at the end.

The hike leads to a 200-foot high waterfall that you can see from the top of the falls, across the way. Those wanting to see it from the bottom--one of the people working for the Nature Conservancy who was hiking today told me--is to go down the side of the mountain from the overlook and "cut your way through the brush. It's worth every step and the river is beautiful." I took his word for it.

This is a Nature Conservancy preserve and what we did today is about a four-mile hike that I'd rate easy to moderate. It's a rolling trail with a lot to see, but there's no climbing, no rocks and no difficulty.

The payoff view is a bit far from the falls to be as spectacular as it could be (from the bottom, say), but it's still quite lovely. Let me caution you that we ran into a large church youth group as we got back to the truck. Had they been there at the beginning, my guess is we would have gone somewhere else. They were noisy and busy, not what I seek on a hike far from Roanoke (about 35 miles up U.S. 220 to Bent Mountain).

Good hike today, though. I liked it a lot. Took a total of about 2.5 hours. Here are the details.

Janeson at the overlook rail.

Group taking photos across from the falls.

Pampa pushing Janeson over the edge.

Nature's stairway.

Janeson hugs a tree.

Crowded parking lot at the end of the trail (no thank you, boys and girls).