Rock Castle Creek tumbles over numerous rocks and forms many small waterfalls as it parallels the Rock Castle Gorge Trail. It's this little creek that over the course of many eons has cut this 1,800-foot deep gorge along the Floyd-Patrick county line.

Source of News: Roanoke Times --www.roanoke.com Rocky Knob's Rock Castle Gorge An up-and-down hike that will give you a Blue Ridge mountain high By Kevin Myatt Kevin Myatt | The Roanoke Times Location: Rocky Knob Recreation Area, milepost 167, Blue Ridge Parkway near the Floyd-Patrick County line. It's about 50 miles south of Roanoke, or a little more than an hour's drive on the parkway. Length: 10.6 miles. Elevation: From 3,572 feet at its highest point on Rocky Knob near the Blue Ridge Parkway to 1,700 feet at its lowest point in the Rock Castle Gorge. Gottasee factor (scenery, scale 0 to 4): 3.5. Another Appalachian sampler hike. Features include open vistas, a cascading stream, plentiful and varied flora and fauna, and a boulder field. Gottabreathe factor (difficulty, scale 0 to 4): 3.5: Or maybe 3.6 or 3.7 It's a tough trail for a long dayhike or to pack extra weight for an overnight snooze by Rock Castle Creek. Get ready for an 1,800-foot descent and an equal climb, each in less than 2 miles. Most of it is moderate, but some of it is quite steep and rocky. It's a mile and a half of pretty steep descending through here. The scenic highlight of the descent is an area of rock chunks, some as big as houses, known as the Bear Rocks. Not far after this, the trail finally bottoms out at Rock Castle Creek, with a resting bench placed with a view over some small waterfalls. I've always said that the hardest trails aren't those where you start out climbing right out of the trailhead. It's those where you start by going downhill. If you start the Rock Castle Gorge Trail at the Rocky Knob Recreation Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will find out just how difficult downhill hiking can be. That's because what goes down must come back up on this 10.6-mile loop, and in this case, that means about 1,800 feet. The Rock Castle Gorge Trail is pretty simple, made up of three roughly equal parts: It's one part folllowing a ridgeline at over 3,000 feet with spectacular views, one part following a gurgling stream through a thickly forested hollow at 1,700 feet, and one part straining knees, ankles or lungs on steep descending or climbing to get between the two