Hospital Rock

In the depths of Jones Gap State Park, there lies a huge rock that is named “Hospital Rock.” Supposedly there are rumors of the rock actually being used as a shelter for wounded soldiers during the Civil War.


Me on top of HR.

I tried researching this with no luck yesterday. It definitely looks like it could be used as a shelter. If you know more about this place, drop me a line.


You can spot “Pretty Place” a couple times from the HR trail. Look closely there is a chapel up there.

We started out from the bottom of the park and climbed, climbed, climbed. When they say “strenuous hike” they mean it. It took us right around 2 hours to cover the 2 miles to get to the rock.

We ate chocolate croissants from the Paris Café while we chilled at the rock and wondered if wounded soldiers had once lain under the rock.


Our “HR dance”

The walk back seemed much shorter, but still as hard. We shaved 15 minutes off on the way back. Kristin opined that it was the Croissants.

As we were negotiating our way down the trail, we started hearing a thumping from behind us. Kristin thought it was a bear, I fashioned it as a soldier’s wounded soul. However it was an “exteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeme trail runner.” You think I am kidding? After he went hopping/falling down the trail in front of us, I bet Kristin that some were to follow.

Some did follow, but they were in no way as “extreeeeeeeeeeeeme” as the first guy. The third and last guy looked like he needed a cliff bar in a bad way. In her sweet voice Kristin said “They aren’t too far ahead.” Too bad for him that he did not take this comment with a grain of salt and quickened his pace.


We spotted this guy on the way back down.