Blue Ridge Railroad Historical Trail

Interesting trail. Wooded...it’s not about the views but about the walk in the history. The mileage is way off....2.8 one way for a total of 5.6. That if you don’t do the spur trail to see the Middle Tunnel. That makes it a little over 5.7.

Great beginner trail but a little more intense with mud and a big dog pulling the whole way

This trail has a few spots where it takes some effort to climb upwards. Some spots were slippery with leaves. Some of those leaves covered rocks. Be careful with your footing. Historical more than entertaining.

If you enjoy history and caves then this is is a fun trail to hike. The trail itself is overgrown but it's easy enough to hike through. I would recommend wearing long pants and a lot of bug spray. There are markers on the trail to tell you about the plant life and the history of the blue ridge rail road. You can go into the middle cave although you can't go far because a gate blocks the rest of the tunnel. The last cave, Sadlers Cave, is underwater so you can't enter it. It totaled at just five miles and was fairly easy. I also didn't see anyone else on the trail so it's secluded.

the trail is laid out really well. and the history was pretty cool. all in all I enjoyed this trail and would recommend it.

not much of a trail if you just simply want scenic views, but historically very interesting.

Really enjoyed this trail! There are a couple of spots that give really great views, and I loved the facts about the railroad and various plants along the way

I logged a total of 5.61 round trip miles from tunnel to tunnel to include the trek down the hill to the waterfall. Very interesting history here! You can see all the cuts and digs they did to create the railroad bed. The history of this railroad and the tunnel approaches are amazing. Trail is in good shape.

Awesome trail, easy to hike and historic

Not a lot to see on this hike. The waterfall is right at the beginning and stumphouse mountain is cool. But the hike itself is not very scenic. Plus we had ticks on us during and after the hike. Not sure I would do the hike again but would go see waterfall and stumphouse tunnel again.

moderate only in some areas great views when done in the winter

Good bike trail. Rode bike most of the way. Learning markers(plants, trees, mine site) along the way.

Trail has a few spots with decent mountain views. It was marked okay but does get somewhat dense close to the end. We stumbled upon this trail by accident looking for Yellow Branch.

We really enjoyed this trail. We had driven all the way to Walhalla hoping to hike Yellow Branch, but the road was closed when we arrived so we drove across the street to the Stumphouse Tunnel and Isaqueena Falls park. WE ended up on this trail by accident, thinking it was leading to the lower part of Isaqueena falls. The trail is marked by yellow blazes painted on the trees and it was very well marked. The first section was very strenuous. We had to maneuver obstacles such as roots, fallen trees, rocks and steep uphill climbs but once you get onto the wider trail (it is very wide and mostly flat) we had no trouble at all, it was actually very peaceful and we did not encounter any other hikers. WE stopped at Middle Tunnel and Saddle Tunnel, you cannot enter either one ( I guess you could crawl into Middle Tunnel, but it was pretty creepy!!) Saddle Tunnel was very low and full of water. The trail seemed to lead a little beyond Saddle Tunnel, but it was not as obvious so we stopped and turned around at Saddle Tunnel (we only knew the name of the tunnel from maps online, it is not marked.) There is a rather large sinkhole on the left side after Middle Tunnel and Before Saddle tunnel that would be extremely dangerous if you were not paying attention. We saw 2 whitetail deer high up in the trees just after the sink hole. There isn't much to see on this trail other than the tunnels, which were more like caves than anything, but the forest was beautiful and there were occasional views (through trees) of the surrounding area. All in all I really enjoyed this hike and would probably do again.

The ticks were terrible in June 2012 and we had no less than 50 ticks on 2 dogs and 2 people! 1/2 way in the ticks were falling from the trees!