21 Corbin Cabin Loop

This hike heads into one of Shenandoah National Park’s most heavily settled hollows to an authentic pioneer cabin—and you can even stay in it, with advance reservations. Back in pre-park days, Nicholson Hollow had a reputation, deserved or not, as a lawless place. You will drop steeply from Skyline Drive, then visit the George Corbin Cabin. Some say it is haunted. Your escape route takes you up the Hughes River to the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Trail. A walk through a rocky mountain-laurel-laden ridge leads you back to the trailhead.

Start: Corbin Cabin parking area at milepost 37.9 of Skyline Drive

Distance: 4.0-mile loop

Hiking time: About 2.5–4 hours

Difficulty: Moderate, but does have 1,100-foot elevation change

Trail surface: Natural

Best season: Year-round

Other trail users: None

Canine compatibility: Leashed pets only

Land status: National park

Fees and permits: Entrance fee required

Schedule: 24/7/365

Maps: Shenandoah National Park; USGS Old Rag Mountain

Trail contact: Shenandoah National Park, 3655 Highway 211 E., Luray, VA 22835; (540) 999-3500; www.nps.gov/shen

Finding the trailhead: The Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail is located on the east side of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park at milepost 37.9. The parking area is on the west side of the scenic road and has seven spaces. The trailhead is on a hilly curve and is easily missed. Trailhead GPS: N38 36.938' / W78 21.030'

The Hike

The Hughes River flows east off the slopes of Stony Man Mountain, cutting a deep valley known as Nicholson Hollow. This hike takes you into its upper reaches. The valley is set between two of the most noteworthy peaks in what was to become Shenandoah National Park: Stony Man and Old Rag. In the 1890s George Pollack’s Skyland Lodge, standing on the shoulder of Stony Man Mountain, was drawing in mountain lovers, nature seekers, and hikers. Indefatigable Pollack blazed trails from Skyland to the geological wonderment of Old Rag Mountain. Today, Old Rag is one of the busiest hikes in Shenandoah National Park, and it is Virginia’s contribution to the great mountains of America. The granite-topped peak is the park’s most recognizable summit, famed for a boulder scramble and vista after vista from the rock outcrops along its shoulders.

Literally against that backdrop, back in the early 1900s, there were the families of Nicholson Hollow, pinched between Stony Man Mountain and Old Rag Mountain, both of which brought in “outsiders,” including journalists writing stories about the possibility of this new Shenandoah National Park. The families of Nicholson Hollow, minding their business for the previous 150 years, were suddenly tossed into the national limelight. And when a reporter cannot find something dramatic to report, they sometimes make it up.

The people of Nicholson Hollow were cast as mountain caricatures—lawless, shiftless, hardscrabble ne’er-do-wells. Mostly they were ordinary mountain folk, same as in the next hollow up or down the mountain chain. Fact is, in the 1930s, times were changing throughout the Potomac Highlands. Game was being hunted out, the soil was becoming depleted, and Prohibition was in effect. Some of these “tourists” that climbed Old Rag and Stony Man Mountains just might be a revenuer out to catch a man turning corn into moonshine.

Hikers gather in front of the Corbin Cabin.

Shenandoah National Park did come to be, and all the families of Nicholson Hollow were bought out. Their cabins were dismantled and possessions hauled off to where the residents would start a new life.

Except for the cabin of George Corbin. It sits right where he built it, in a flat above the Hughes River, just below the confluence with Indian Run. The cabin will lend insight into the lifeways of the people of Nicholson Hollow. The hike to the Corbin Cabin uses a steep path created and tramped by the people of Nicholson Hollow. And here’s the kicker: Corbin Cabin is available for overnight rental by the public. Even if you don’t spend the night, the cabin is worth a visit and the circuit hike is rewarding, as you not only enjoy Hughes River but also gain views of Stony Man Mountain on your way out. Finally, the hike closes the loop with a trip on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Note: Before you start the hike, take the short, grassy connector path at the back of the Corbin Cabin parking area linking it to the AT to remember the intersection.

In 1910, when George Corbin erected his two story wood-and-chinking homestead on the banks of the upper Hughes River, deep in Virginia’s Potomac Highlands, he never imagined his home would be an attraction within a national park and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Even after Corbin and the residents of Nicholson Hollow saw the inevitability of Shenandoah National Park, Corbin believed he could live in his cabin still. But it was not to be. Corbin lived in his dwelling until 1938 when he was bought out by Shenandoah National Park and moved outside the newly established boundaries.

A legend persists that the cabin is haunted. George’s wife, Nee, died there during childbirth in the winter of 1924. If you are willing to overnight it in the Corbin Cabin, obtain more cabin-rental information at patc.net.

Approximately twenty families lived in Nicholson Hollow at the time of Shenandoah National Park’s establishment in the 1930s.

Miles and Directions

0.0Join the Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail, descending the east side of Skyline Drive through birch, striped maple, and oak. Turn onto a narrow ridge of mountain laurel with young chestnut trees.

0.4The path steepens.

0.5The trail turns off the ridge and into a hollow.

0.7Reach the head of the hollow cut by a trickling branch. Turn down the hollow. Look for rock piles scattered in the hollow, signs of former fields.

1.1Look for a chimney through the woods to your left.

1.2Come alongside a conspicuous rock wall. Step over a spring branch. Look right for a narrow path leading uphill to an old pioneer cemetery.

1.3The Hughes River becomes audible. Look to your right in a flat before the stream. There you will find the remains of a forgotten structure. Its floor and roof are still intact but most of the walls have collapsed.

1.4Rock-hop the Hughes River. To your left the Nicholson Hollow Trail has come up 4 miles from the community of Nethers. That 4-mile stretch is where most of the Nicholson Hollow residents lived. The Corbin Cabin stands in front of you. A small clearing is kept open around the cabin to reduce the possibility of forest fires burning it down. If no one is renting the building for the night, it will be shut, but you still can come up and take a seat on the porch, admiring the view. From here, head uphill on the Nicholson Hollow Trail, toward Skyline Drive.

1.5Rock-hop Indian Run, a tributary of the Hughes River that is more rock than water. Just ahead, the Indian Run Trail leads left up to Corbin Mountain Trail. Begin circling a wide, gently sloping hollow that was surely cleared land in Corbin’s day.

1.6Step over the uppermost Hughes River.

2.1Turn away from the Hughes River. The trail steepens.

2.7Pass a boxed-in spring just to the left of the trail. Join a ridgeline offering views of Stony Man Mountain to the south.

3.2Come to Skyline Drive. From here, turn and walk along Skyline Drive for 60 yards, then cross the road. Walk the last bit of the Nicholson Hollow Trail.

3.3Meet the Crusher Ridge Trail. Turn right here and follow it uphill.

3.4Come to the Appalachian Trail. This is the high point of the hike. Turn right here (northbound), descending by switchbacks.

3.6Dip to a gap. The trailside vegetation becomes rocky, dry, and piney, with copious growth of mountain laurel.

4.0Reach the trailhead after coming to a low point and trail intersection on the AT just a few yards from the Corbin Cabin parking area.

The Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail

The Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail was not created by Shenandoah National Park personnel but was simply beaten down by residents living along the Hughes River in Nicholson Hollow. One such trail user was Virgil Corbin, George Corbin’s son.

In the 1930s Virgil would walk up the path, then go to work, bringing water to the men working on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After distributing water all day, George would walk back down to his dad’s residence and the objective of this hike.

The Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail is steep and straight up and down. Mountain folk don’t play around when it comes to climbing hills. The national park generally builds trails with a lesser gradient and takes into account factors such as minimizing erosion, stabilizing the trail bed, avoiding sensitive locations for flora and fauna, and routing toward scenic locales. In order to keep the Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail intact, park personnel have added water bars to divert water during storms, cleared trees from the trail, and strategically placed rocks to keep the trail from washing away. Thus, the Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail continues to be.