My second favorite hike with kids, second only to White Oak Canyon, is Crabtree Falls in Montebello, Virginia. I spent a beautiful July day there with my daughter, my friend, and her two girls. Crabtree Falls is the tallest set of falls east of the Mississippi. It’s 4.4 miles long, but you hike up and can turn around at any point. It’s a great hike with kids, it’s shaded, always much cooler than the valley we live in, and there is a picture perfect view every switchback. There are 9 switchbacks, guardrails along the steeper portions, and steps along the really steep sections. About halfway up there is also a cave the kids really enjoyed. There are places along the way to take your shoes off and have fun splashing in the water. The rocks, however, are covered in VERY slick algae and there are Forest Service signs warning that people have fallen and died. Our kids read those warnings themselves and did not need any policing from us while playing in the stream.
In the photos below you can see a tradition of rock stacking our Hawaiian friends taught us. They leave small stacks of rocks along trails and beaches they visit.
On the way to Crabtree Falls is the Montebello Fish Hatchery. I have always wanted to stop and have never had time. The hatchery is open to visitors and 60,000 pounds of brook, rainbow and brown trout are grown there each year. The hatchery is the main source of trout for Virginia’s Urban Fishing Program.
