Cooks Wall Trail officially ends about 2 miles from the lake at Hanging Rock State Park. At the rock outcrop which marks the end of the trail, the view north is dominated by Huckleberry Ridge and Moore's Knob. To the west, toward Sauratown and Pilot Mountains, the ridge gently descends but is covered in craggy rocks and crevices. Of course folks have ventured out here out of curiosity and also for the climbing routes on either side of "Cook's Fin" as the ridge is known.
Pink Rock when there is not lichen growing
The area is gnarled in briers and other nasty stuff. I made my way out on the sculpted rocks. The formations and buttresses are unique. A couple dead ends required some messy bypasses in briers. I explored a couple separation cracks which made narrow caves.
My destination was the gap between Devils Chimneys. I never made it that far. One dead end was at the spot I remember Matt had to push several of us up when there was leap of faith from one rock to another but no immediate handhold. We made it up that day but I was going in the other direction and it looked too dangerous. However, I was able to find a scramble route around it to the south.
I'm not sure how close to the chimneys I got. My best guess is about 150 feet but there was a lot of rock in the 150 feet. Possibly, the photo above is looking directly at the chimneys (2nd and 3rd rock points with possible gap between).
Here is another shot after retreating back up the fin.
No comments:
Post a Comment