Dragon's Tooth
Quartzite Rock Formation On Cove Mountain In The Jefferson National Forest, On The Appalachian National Scenic Trail; One Of The Three Virginia Triple Crown Peaks · Catawba, Virginia
A cluster of Tuscarora quartzite spires standing up out of the ridge on Cove Mountain, the largest of them about thirty-five feet high, and the hardest of the three walks that make up the Virginia Triple Crown. McAfee Knob gets the photographs and Tinker Cliffs gets the long view; Dragon's Tooth gets the people who wanted a scramble. The approach is gentle enough along Dragon's Tooth Trail, and then the last half mile onto the ridge turns into genuine hands-and-feet work over slick angled rock, with iron rungs and rebar set into the worst of it and a few moves that give pause on the way down more than the way up. The reward at the top is the tooth itself - a blade of white quartzite you can climb onto, with the Catawba Valley on one side and North Mountain on the other. It is about five miles round trip and it takes most people four to five hours, which is the number that catches people out: it is shorter than McAfee and considerably harder.
Route 311 trailhead, Catawba, Jefferson National Forest, Catawba, Virginia, 24070, United States
Trail open at all hours, year round, and free - there is no gate and no fee. The Route 311 trailhead lot is small and fills on weekends, sharing the Triple Crown parking problem flagged for McAfee Knob. NO water, NO toilets and NO facilities at the trailhead or on the route. The final half mile is an unroped scramble on iron rungs and is genuinely dangerous when the rock is wet or icy.