14.3-mile straight path along crest of Stone Mountain between Alternate US 58 at Big Stone Gap and Cave Springs Recreation Area. A challenging trail if you take it fast, it is negotiable for the average hiker who has time to rest along the way. The Appalachia Loop Trail is on Little Stone Mountain, typical Appalachian Plateau country, with profuse boulderfields and sand-loving rhododendron thickets. From Appalachia, take Alternate US 58 southwest for .5 mile to left turn onto Town Route 1321. Go to end of road, turn left on Town Route 1319, travel the length of a city block, and go right on Town Route 1322.
Trailhead is at end of road on right.
Difficult, with steep, rocky sections. The transformation of Big Stone Gap into a vital cultural area after coal and iron ore were discovered in the area in the late 1870s is featured in the main gallery on the first floor. Second-floor exhibits tell of local people at the turn of the century. The outside world was having a profound influence as mail-order catalogs, photographs, radios, and railroads ended the people's isolation. The flow of early settlers into and through southwest Virginia as the Wilderness Road was opened through Cumberland Gap is chronicled on the third floor.