McAfee Knob
Viewpoint On The Appalachian National Scenic Trail; The Middle Peak Of The Virginia Triple Crown, On Catawba Mountain In The Jefferson National Forest · Catawba, Virginia
A flat slab of sandstone cantilevered out over the Catawba Valley at about three thousand two hundred feet, and the most photographed spot on the entire two-thousand-two-hundred-mile Appalachian Trail. The rock juts clear of the mountain with nothing underneath it, so a person sitting on the lip appears to be hanging in mid-air with two hundred and seventy degrees of ridge and valley behind them - which is why the picture exists in some form on the phone of nearly everyone who has ever walked this section. It is roughly four miles up from Route 311 on the Appalachian Trail, climbing about fifteen hundred feet at a steady rather than brutal grade, with the payoff entirely concentrated in the last thirty seconds when you come out of the trees. McAfee is the middle peak of the Virginia Triple Crown with Tinker Cliffs and Dragon's Tooth, and the three are often walked as a single hard weekend. The thing to sort out before you go is parking: the small roadside lot has long been inadequate for the number of people who come, and the arrangements have changed.
Appalachian Trail crossing, Route 311, Catawba, Catawba, Virginia, 24070, United States
The trail is open at all hours, year round, and free - there is no gate and no fee. THE CONSTRAINT IS PARKING: the small Route 311 trailhead lot fills before dawn at weekends, verge parking is dangerous and enforced against, and the arrangement has changed with a shuttle and revised parking introduced - CONFIRM the current rules and shuttle season before travelling. No water, no toilets and no facilities at the trailhead or on the trail.