We planned a fall hike on Friday, to the lookout at Snooper’s Rock in the Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area (WMA). It was abundantly clear that we would not be allowed to enter the 7,000-acre State Park.
I read the emphatic warning posted on the barrier and walked to the gate. An armed Park Ranger met me and we chatted amiably about the schedule and hiker’s ban, while deer hunters took over the entire 25,000-acre Wild Life Management Area, including the State Park. “OK-fine.”
Time to create Plan-B. A thirty-minute drive would take us to Suck Mountain and the overlooks for Denny Cove. We’d hiked the Denny Cove Waterfall trail, but today was dedicated to leaf peeping.
The drive to Denny Cove was beautiful and would have been reward enough for leaf peeping, but we were determined to go hiking.
Karen snapped away on the trip to Suck Mountain. When pictures this pretty can be taken from a moving car, the lookout at Denny Cove should be awesome.
Falling rocks, from massive overhangs onto the hiking trail below, made the going tough. With no way to know when the next load of rocks will give way, the outcroppings are great incentives to not tarry too long.
The first Denny Cove Lookout was great.
We had the trail and lookout vantage points to ourselves.
The trees were still thick with leaves at the second Denny Cove Lookout, reducing the view of the valley below. It was still gorgeous.
The gate at the trailhead closes at sunset this time of year and we got a later start than usual. The light from the setting sun added long shadows and made the fall colors pop. Snooper’s Rock will have to wait until bullets aren’t flying in the park. Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of fall colors at Suck Creek Mountain.