On this trip we spent 4 days backpacking the Linville Gorge in November 2019. We had planned to do a loop but the river at Devil's Hole was not crossable in the freezing temps so we stayed on the east side. There were a lot of nice fall colors for us to enjoy and we had ideal weather besides the chill. All in all a great adventure in the Grand Canyon of the East!
Our first day took us from the Table Rock parking area up to Hawksbill via the challenging Ledge Trail then down Devil's Hole Trail to the river where we set up camp. After our first night we ran into some people who told us it had been 18 degrees at the top of the Gorge, but we felt it was warmer than that at the bottom (not too warm though! Our water had frozen by the morning). After deciding we weren't going to cross the river on our second day we proceeded to explore and rock hop up and down the banks before returning to the same camping area that night which we ended up sharing with a couple other fellows who also had foiled plans of crossing the river.
Day 3 took us back up Devil's Hole (it was easier going down) and we returned to the top of Hawksbill to enjoy the views again before heading to our final night's site at the top of the Gorge. We finished off the trip on day 4 with a trek to the top of Table Rock then savored the last few views on the drive out.
Shorter highlight video for anyone who wants the scenery without all the details: https://youtu.be/Bgs_UhSi_GI
Enjoy the video trip report from our adventure in the awesome Gorge!
Layne
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