Raven Ridge Trail

Ravin Ridge Trail leads to Cabin Mountian which is a rocky ridge running along the west side of Dolly Sods. Access from the east can be challenging if you don't know which unmarked trail to follow, although the pictures below may not look it. If you get to Cabin Mountain and turn south, you end up running into the Blackbird Knob West (TR 511).

Easy Trail

This is one of the easiest trails at Dolly Sods, but fortuanately for backcountry folks, you have to walk 2 miles across rocks, bogs and dense pine without the help of marked trails. Looking at the grassy hill in the background of this trail, you can see Round Hilltop.

Marshy Praries

This was taken roughly 3 miles northwest of Red Creek campground. The Cabin Mountian Trail drops down into a large open marsh area. In this area, if you are not on on a rock or moving, you are sinking ankle deep in marshy grass. Beavers shape the land.

Hiking here can be frustrating due to the inability to walk a straight line to your destination. Knowing how to follow a compass azimuth may be of little use here because you cannot walk a straight line. You must be able to read a map and associate the landmarks with the terrain in front of your face. Furthermore, you need to be able to predict where it is best to try to walk due to beaver dams, massive erosion that creates 6 foot deep streambeds, dense pine stands or large boulder size rocks. This is truly the promised land for backcountry backpackers.

Strange Terrain

When you walk through the marshy areas, the streams are often depressed into the ground with a landscape that has numerous sinkholes and gulleys. Wear good, heavy, waterproof boots to avoid sprained ankles and soaking wet feet. Water sandles here would be very ineffective due to the soft ground and the numerous hazards to your feet. While this land may look easy and pleasant, the constantly changing character of the soil beneath your feet with the 30 to 40 pounds of gear on your back can make negotiating normally easy obstacles very difficult.

One final note about this area. There is very little shade. While Dolly Sods is normally 10 to 12 degrees cooler than the metropolitan areas nearby, these hikes demand sunscreen or other protection. Long sleeve shirts and lightweight pants are a good idea for hiking through some of the rougher terrain as well as for combating the bugs in some of the low-lying marshy areas.