Women’s Walk in the Wood’s Hike Selection
How to Proceed: Hike Options - You will be asked to indicate your first, second, and third choice while registering. Hikes will be assigned, based on your preferences, on a first come, first served basis.
If your desired hike is full, feel free to select it and you will be put on a waiting list in the event a spot opens up.
Maude’s Cedar Narrows & God’s Country
Length of Trail: 1.5 miles - with the option to continue to God’s Country (1.8 miles)
Difficulty: Moderate
Maude’s Cedar Narrows protects a long section of the Rocky Fork Creek corridor and the lower run of Franklin Branch in the western reaches of the 3,000-acre Sanctuary. It also boasts one of the prettiest waterfalls in the Arc Preserve system. Maude’s Trail follows a steep hillside overlooking the Rocky Fork right after the creek exits the lake at the Rocky Fork State Park. In this high-humidity and wind-protected gorge, karst wildflowers flourish.
Harmony Trail at Paint Creek State Park
Length of Trail: 1.25 Miles
Difficulty: Easy
This is an easy loop that runs alongside Paint Creek, which is minutes away from the Appalachian Forest Museum. The trail is a wide, even, and well-maintained dirt path which follows the creek for the first half and then passes scenic rock ledges for the second. It is a peaceful trail with a lot to look at along the way!
Cliff Run
Length of Trail: 2 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate
This very pleasant trail overlooks a small dolomite gorge that includes a nice diversity of ephemeral wildflowers and a picturesque, bedrock-bottomed stream meandering below the bluff. One of the highlights of the trail is a small lake nestled in the hills above Lewis Gorge. Beaver have colonized the lake, with additional dams and small pools added off-trail at the headwaters of the streams feeding the lake. The hike includes traversing a floating boardwalk near the dam where ducks and other water birds can be spotted. The surrounding hardwood forest is younger (30 years and older), and healthy, with limited invasive plant pressure and scattered mature trees.
Barrett’s Rim Trail
Length of Trail: 2.5 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
The trail follows the Rocky Fork Creek along the base of a vertical rock wall. This trail is known for offering beautiful views of the creek with a diverse range of native plants. It travels through an open meadow full of sun-loving native plants and into the rich forest trail with mesic outcrops of limestone and calcium-rich rock hosting unique assemblages of plants, including wild columbine and walking fern. The trail includes descents and ascents to reach the creek.
Hickory Hollows
Length of Trail: 2 Miles
Difficulty: Moderately Difficult
Hickory Hollows is a beautiful mature woodlands that boasts magnificent specimens of hickories, hence its name. The towering trees of this mature forest overlook the sparkling waters of a private lake that borders the property. If you are nurtured by quiet expanses of open waters and you love wildflowers, this is the trip for you! The forest supports an unusual density of twinleaf and goldenseal, along with rue anemones, adders tongue, and hepatica. Along the trek you will be experiencing classic mesic wildflower display as well as karst-country showcases in regions of the preserve where dolomite bedrock is exposed at the surface, presenting beautiful geologic formations. Two small streams enter the lake, each forming its own small karst-influenced ravine.