Maple Syrup Festival and Hike Chimney Rock - Hard/steep 6.5 miles (1000' EL.)

Everyone likes a reward after a strenuous hike, right? How about some freshly cooked maple syrup treats and live music? That's right - The Annual Maple Syrup Festival is back at Cunningham Falls!

But first... The Hike. And this one is kind of a doozy. We will park in the main lot of Cunningham Falls State Park ($5 per person fee due to the festival). We will meet at the north end of the parking lot near the snack stand, do quick introduction and then start hiking promptly at 10am.

It is barely a half mile to Cunningham Falls, which should hopefully be impressive with all the recent snow and rain. We will partake a somewhat sketchy crossing of the creek to get back to Route 77 and the Nature Falls Trail. That leads us to the visitor center in Catoctin Park. From there, we will have a fairly consistent elevation gain all the way to Wolf Rock, which doesn't have an amazing view, but does have some pretty neat crevasses to (optionally) leap over. From there it is a fairly level trek to the spectacular lookout on Chimney Rock, where you can easily see Frederick! If it isn't too windy, we can break here for a snack. From there, it is a number of switchbacks descending the mountain and winding along MD 77, back to the Visitor Center and an optional bathroom break. Then across MD 77 again and another 3/4 mile down a poorly-maintained trail to the festival, where the food an music should still be in full swing. Total distance is about 6.5 miles, making this one of the longest and steepest that we tackle in this group.

PDF maps of both parks are here:
Catoctin Mountain (Orange Blaze Trail)
Cunningham Falls