Cumberland Gap / Pinnacle Overlook & White Rocks

Visiting Cumberland Gap National Historic Park | Hiking the Pinnacle Overlook Trail | Camping in Campground | Hiking to White Rocks Peak | May 2024

The part of this road trip that we had been most looking forward to had arrived: we had made it to the mountains, and with that came cooler, less humid weather, and plenty of hiking opportunities! We were especially excited about this specific route we had planned, where we were stringing together several places we had been before and enjoyed — like Red River Gorge and Cumberland Gap NHS — but taking different roads between them and getting more new counties on our way.

We started our visit to Cumberland Gap with going to the visitor center for stamps, which we had missed out on last time because we had arrived too late, then we made the drive up to the Pinnacle Overlook Trail. The road was steep with lots of switchbacks, and we were thankful that our van is as short as it is, because vehicles longer than 20 feet aren’t permitted on this road. We made it up to the trailhead, which was mostly empty, and began walking on the Overlook Trail. The trail was easy and paved, and brought us to a great South-facing view. We were able to see about where we had hiked last time to the state tri-point. Last time we didn’t even try for this area or any other sort of view because it was overcast and raining off and on, but today we had gorgeous weather, blue skies, and great visibility. It was definitely worth revisiting just for this!

We continued on the overlook trail to see an old Civil War fort and to the peak of the Pinnacle, crossing back and forth between Virginia and Kentucky, then made our way back to the van. After enjoying some snacks at the trailhead, we made our way back down from the ridge, underneath the gap via the highway tunnel, and headed to the campground. We had reserved a site in the Cumberland Gap Wilderness Campground for tonight, where we were able to refill our water tank and shower in their facilities. The downside of this campground is that not all sites are level, so it probably would have been better if we had just waited and picked out a site in person instead of reserving in advance, especially since it wasn’t busy here. Besides that, we spent a relaxing and quiet evening here.

The next morning, we rose early so that Curtis could go for a hike that would count toward his 300x300x33 goal. We drove over to the White Rocks Trailhead at the North end of the park, which started in Thomas Walker Civic Park in Ewing, and Curtis prepped for his hike. I was ready to do whatever Charlotte wanted, whether it be the whole hike, partial hike, or none of it. The result? After a strong start of walking through the trailhead parking lot towards the start of the trail, she found the pavilion with all the picnic tables and good smells, and that was as far as we made it. So she and I enjoyed a relaxing morning while Curtis hiked.

Curtis: This peak had everything that I look for in a mountain: prominence, views, and an established trail that isn’t too long. I had joked with Jess about backpacking the length of the ridge to get to the peak the night before, which was quite possible, but just not in the budget of time or planning. Fortunately, the trail up to the ridge was a multi-use trail for horses as well as people, so it was quite wide and not too steep. I met a couple of people who were coming down but was otherwise alone for the hike. Once on the ridge, it was a bit of steep rock steps to get up to the top of the cliffs and all the views. It was excellent weather, clear skies, light breeze, and just a bit hazy. I wandered around the top of the cliffs which were easily 100 feet tall in places and found what I determined was the highest point. I even lucked out on finding a large growth of Chicken-of-the-Woods mushroom growing on a stump which I collected a small piece of for dinner.

Satisfied, I came down off the peak and made good time coming down, finishing the 6 miles in about 3 hours. Overall a great hike and I can see why an image of the ‘White Rocks’ is featured on the Cumberland Gap brochure. And another peak toward my prominence hiking goal……or so I thought. After the fact, while logging my trip reports, I realized that, in my haste to hit the trails, I had been less than accurate in my trip planning. The top of the cliffs is by far the most scenic area where I was, but it actually doesn’t have that much prominence. If I had gone Southwest down the trail though, I would have come near the peak with the prominence. In my limited defense they had basically identical names. I just can’t explain how, standing on the cliffs I neglected to notice the clearly higher peak off to my right. Some of you might think this is a silly distinction. After all, I went to the more scenic location. But I set the rules for myself, and my rules say that it doesn’t count. Or maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to return and do a backpacking trip along the ridge. Here is my AllTrails recording for this hike.

Jess: After Curtis returned from his hike, we got back on the road heading toward where we planned to camp for the evening. We wanted to continue our pattern of revisiting places we’ve been that we enjoyed, so our plan was to camp at Beauty Spot on the Appalachian Trail. We crossed into Tennessee and got 2 new counties on our way. We made our way up to the ridge, but when we arrived at the turn off, we found that the road up to the Beauty Spot trailhead was closed. A little research told us that it was for road construction, though we joked that they closed it because of people having weddings up there (there was one last time we were there, and I know of at least one other that happened last fall). We considered our other options, and ended up deciding to drive back to Rock Creek Recreation Area, which is a national forest campground. It definitely wasn’t as scenic as Beauty Spot, but we enjoyed the shade and took a nice walk along the creek (there’s a waterfall hike that starts here, but we opted not to hike because it didn’t look Charlotte friendly). Besides Curtis realizing that he had hiked the wrong peak, we had a great night here!