After a weekend of hiking and family fun, sooner than we liked, it was time to leave our weekend cottage and head home. Rain deterred some of our plans for stops on the way home, but thankfully rain doesn’t matter when you are in a tunnel!
The Blue Ridge Tunnel is a former railroad tunnel constructed in the 1850s. A few years ago the Blue Ridge Tunnel was restored and opened to the public as a walking trail. Located just off of 64 not far from Charlottesville, it’s a few curvy roads away from the east trailhead. The east trailhead has a bigger parking lot and easier access to the trail. The west trailhead of the Blue Ridge Tunnel is a bit more of a challenging hike and with all the hiking we’ve done (Douthat State Park and Roaring Run), we were good with easy.
The only thing you need to bring on this trail is a flashlight since there are no lights inside the mile long tunnel. It’s also cooler inside the tunnel than outside, so you may need a light jacket depending on the time of year that you visit. There is an easy one mile flat walk on crushed gravel to the entrance of the Blue Ridge Tunnel. Within a few yards of entering, it is completely dark inside the tunnel. We had fun walking, examining the tunnel walls, and making the occasional spooky sounds. This trail is popular, so we never felt alone in the tunnel, but there was enough distance between us and other groups to not feel crowded.
Once we reached the other end of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, we snapped a picture and headed back for one more walk through the darkness. Thankfully, by the time we reached the other side, the rain had let up. The Blue Ridge Tunnel is definitely something we would do again.
