(map is at bottom of page)
Hidden Valley has changed so little since the Warwick Mansion was built there in the mid-1800s that the area was used to film the 1993 post-Civil War movie Sommersby. According to publicity releases, after a search in 15 states, Hidden Valley was chosen because "its rugged and remote hill overlooking the pristine Jackson River presented an unspoiled, stark but picturesque setting . . . you could shoot 360 degrees and not know you were in the 20th century."
Happily, this is not just Hollywood hype. In any direction you gaze, there are no high-power utility lines cutting across the hillsides or communication towers and radio dishes rising above the ridges. In fact, other than the Warwick Mansion and its few outbuildings, a couple of Forest Service structures, an old, overgrown fence line, and a dirt road that part of the hike follows, there is scant evidence of humans ever having been in the valley.
Archaeological digs indicate the presence of Indians in the valley more than 8,000 years ago. The first settlement by European immigrants wasn't established until 1740, but only the most skilled researcher could find any trace of this small community that was abandoned after being burned by the French and Indians in 1754. In 1788, Jacob Warwick obtained the property in Hidden Valley that was to be passed onto his grandson, Judge James Warwick. The judge, using the labor of slaves, had his mansion built out of bricks formed from mud along the Jackson River, and his plantation, known as Warwickton, endured until he and his wife passed away in the late 1890s. The land and mansion went through a number of owners, eventually falling into disrepair by the 1960s. However, a renovated Warwickton is now once again a working farm (on a smaller scale) and was opened to the public as a bed and breakfast in 1993.
You can reach Hidden Valley by following VA 39 west from Warm Springs for 1.5 miles to make a right onto VA 621. In 1 mile, bear left onto FDR 241, arriving at the Hidden Valley Campground on the left side of the road in 1.8 miles. Drive the campground road and park in the trailhead lot for the Lost Woman Trail, an enjoyable pathway of two short, interconnecting loops in the forest above the campground.
Walk the campground entrance road back to FDR 241 at .3 mile, turning left onto it as it becomes dirt. The reason the area was named Hidden Valley soon becomes obvious. The open meadows and fields along the Jackson River are more or less encircled by Back Creek Mountain and the long, heavily forested ridge lines of Cobbler, Warwick, and Little mountains. The river provides the only naturally occurring access route. Coming to the junction at .7 mile, make a right along a roadbed, continuing to follow the route of the Hidden Valley Trail {FS 481}.
Continue to the left at 1.6 miles, where a road bearing right leads to Forest Service administrative offices. The open views of the meadows fade when the roadway enters the woods at 2.2 miles, soon coming close to, but well above, the Jackson River. Look along ground-hugging rhododendron limbs and on rocks in the moist draws of the hillside and you just might spy a lizard-like red-spotted newt. Spending a great portion of their lives in the water, newts, like salamanders, may wander miles from their home stream, but almost always return to breed. Researchers say that the nervous systems in some newts are able to develop a "map" of the terrain they cross and that the information can be recalled when it is time to return. The red-spotted newts have an additional mechanism at their disposal-- they can detect the earth's magnetic field and are able to use it as a directional reference!
After crossing Muddy Run at 3 miles, many fishermen make use of the route bearing to the right, the one-mile Muddy Run Trail {FS 481B}. Many of these sportsmen come back with reports of a healthy population of wild rainbow trout in this side stream. Unless you're going to do some exploring up Muddy Run, keep to the left on the roadway, crossing the Jackson River on a superbly designed and constructed suspension bridge at 3.2 miles. On the far side of the bridge, the Hidden Valley Trail bears right; you'll turn left, following the Rock Shelter Trail {FS 481D} on a cliffside above the river.
By the very nature of the terrain and vegetation the Rock Shelter Trail travels, it may often be a frustrating pathway to negotiate. You can almost be assured of getting wet feet when crossing moist bottomlands, and if the trail has not been brushed out for awhile, quick growing briars, brambles, and other entangling plants may make the route hard to follow and certainly will leave evidence on your skin of your having walked through them. If you find the trail in such condition you may want to retrace your steps back to the campground, but if you're feeling adventurous and don't mind a little bit of adversity, continue onward, passing by an old fence line at 3.8 miles.
The trail soon drops into the damp bottomland, and you may have to decide on the best way to get through. Take solace in the abundance of wild strawberries, whose juicy concentration of flavor puts their cultivated relatives to shame. Deer tracks are often seen around the swampy area at 5 miles before you make a left onto Bogan Run Trail {FS 614}, which at this point is actually FDR 241. Passing by the Greek revival-style Warwick Mansion (placed on the National Register of Historic Places), cross the Jackson River and come into the area that served as Vine Hill, Tennessee, while Sommersby was in production. In a matter of just a few months, the film company built a small community of about a dozen structures, filmed the movie, and then dismantled the set, leaving (at Forest Service request) several outbuildings next to the mansion as the only evidence of their activities. You'll soon meet up with the intersection with the Hidden Valley Trail, where you should bear right and retrace the steps with which you originally began this hike, returning to the campground at 5.6 miles.
