Appalachian Trail Triple Crown — McAfee, Tinker, Dragon's Tooth

The Appalachian Trail is a 2,190-mile hiking trail following the Appalachian Mountains between Georgia and Maine. Roanoke sits directly on it — McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs, and Dragon's Tooth all lie within 30 minutes of downtown. Together, they form the Triple Crown of Virginia hiking, a rite of passage for thru-hikers that day-trippers knock out in a season. McAfee Knob is the most photographed point on the entire Appalachian Trail. It's a 4.7-mile hike with a 1,700-foot climb to a rocky outcrop that juts into the air like a diving platform. The vista offers a 270-degree panorama of the Catawba Valley, 1,600 feet below, with North Mountain visible to the west, Tinker Cliffs to the north, and the Roanoke Valley to the east. The knob is named after James McAfee, a Scottish-Irish immigrant who settled in the Catawba Valley in the late 1730s. The ridge line is covered in pine forest; much of Catawba Mountain was open farmland in the mid-1900s. McAfee Knob appeared prominently in the 2015 film *A Walk in the Woods*, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, and appears on the movie's poster. The trail is managed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and maintained by volunteers from the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club. In 2015, the McAfee Knob Task Force was founded to assist with patrols and support at the Triple Crown sites. In one year, the group counted over 9,000 visitors and hauled out 54 gallons of trash. Start with McAfee Knob — it's the easiest of the three. Save Dragon's Tooth for last; the scramble earns the view.