St. Mary’s Falls
St. Mary’s Wilderness and the St. Mary’s Falls trail hike, in the Washington and Jefferson National Forests, is easily one of my favorite places to hike and camp in Virginia. It is one of the more unique hikes in Virginia and definitely one of the most fun. The hike to the falls is in a small stream valley in between two mountains so the trail can get somewhat narrow and even crosses the stream several times. The trail itself isn’t very well marked or maintained so it’s not hard to find yourself on the wrong footpath or even on the wrong side of the stream. The crossings aren’t too difficult if you can maintain your balance (if you aren’t comfortable jumping from rock-to-rock or walking along logs then I recommend being prepared to have wet shoes). 
On the way up to the falls there are lots of cool geologic formations and rock depositions, including a few that you’ll need to climb alongside on your way to the falls.
The falls themselves are around 12-15 feet high and descend to a pool roughly 6 feet at its deepest. There are several spots around the pool that you can jump from if you’re interested. The jump isn’t the safest though as the landing pool is rather small. I would only advise jumping if you feel confident that you can land accurately. The jump heights range from 10 feet to about 19-20ish feet. Around 100 yards upstream of the falls is deeper pool, about 8-9 feet, that is good for swimming.
Around 150 yards before the big falls there are open areas that people use for camping. These spots are not official camp sites and do not follow the rule of being 200 feet from the trail, in fact, most of them are almost on the trail.
This past January; Matthew, myself, and some of our friends went on an overnight hike out to the falls with the intention of doing the entire 15 mile loop. However, due to a classically later than planned start and upon stepping out of the car into the extreme cold we decided to shorten the hike to just the falls. Despite the cold it was a fantastic hike with a decent amount of snow-cover on the ground. Ice on the stream made the crossings difficult so we stuck to one side for most of the trip, crossing only when necessary. The falls had a shell of ice over top of itself while water rushed underneath it; if you’ve never seen a frozen waterfall before you should definitely add it to your list of things to see. We spent the majority of our free time searching for firewood as we were all freezing and wanted to sit next to a fire. We ate instant pasta cooked out of a metal pitcher and Zach’s mom’s leftover mashed potatoes that we hauled all the way out there. We all slept in hammocks, each using several blankets in addition to our sleeping bags. 
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We arrived at our destination around 2 pm and had our camp set up by 2:30 pm. This time three of us (myself included) were in hammocks while the other three shared a tent. After setting up camp we swam in the stream for a few hours,. This is when I inspected the pool below the waterfall to see if it was safe to jump. Swimming was fun but the main waterfall was crowded with 20-30 people there in addition to us, so we explored upstream a little bit and discovered the deep pool that I mentioned earlier. We were the only people at that pool for around 30 minutes before another group of three arrived and swam alongside us. If you’re looking for a quieter swimming spot on this trip I would definitely recommend going upstream from the main falls as that is where most people stop their hike. When we finished swimming we spent around an hour searching for firewood to use during the night. With a few hours to kill before dinner we hiked off the trail up a rocky slope to get a view of the area below.
For dinner we cooked instant mashed potatoes using filtered water from the stream and SPAM. I cooked using a single stove top screwed right into a mini Coleman fuel tank. I cut the SPAM into bite-size cubes and browned two cans at a time for around 5 minutes each. Then I mixed the potatoes into the pan and let it sit until hot, stirring occasionally. We each ate two bowls worth of the potato/spam combo and finished it off with a chunk of the loaf of french bread that I stuck in my pack at the last minute. For drinks we mixed instant lemonade into our water to avoid funky tastes from the filtered stream water. After dinner and extinguishing our fire three of us went on a night hike in search of a good view of the sky. We hiked to the top of one of the ridges but our view remained obstructed by the forest canopy. We slept fine through the night with clear skies the whole way. For breakfast I cooked the remaining can of spam along with the last pieces of bread. Some of us had discussed going for a morning swim the night before but those notions were quickly discarded when we felt the cold morning temperatures. Dismantling the camp took around 20 minutes and another 10 getting our packs in order before we were on our way back out.
If you’re looking for an overnight hike or just a day hike I highly recommend the Saint Mary’s Falls trail as one of the best short hikes in Virginia. The terrain is challenging and fun, the crowds are minimal on the trail, and the waterfall is awesome. If you’re looking for a cool place to swim there are better options out there; but this is a fun place to mess around at for an afternoon if you enjoy waterfalls and don’t mind swimming with an audience.
