Grayson Highlands State Park

We camp in the park. Fantastic campground and staff. Hiking is mostly moderate with some harder trails…. Miles and miles of hiking, scenic views and due to elevation it is 13-15 degrees cooler than down in Charlotte during the summer months. Zero light pollution at night.

Beautiful campgrounds and hiking trails, plus there are wild ponies! Much colder than the surrounding region due to its elevation. The camp hosts were lovely and there was a little country store with the essentials at the hickory ridge campground. We stayed in mid October and brought our dog.

We visited in early November 2024 on a Friday afternoon. This was our 25th Virginia State Park for the VA State Park Trail Quest. We came here primarily to see the ponies as many do. We were hoping to stop by the visitor center but it looked like the road leading to it was closed and not sure if it was a thing where they closed for the day or if it was for the season. It was unfortunate we had to drive so far into the park to realize it was closed. We did see a ranger in a truck stopping at the closed gate and he mentioned that there was a shop at the front of the park at the main office but that they were packing up and getting ready to leave. We quickly drove ALL the way back to the front and pulled into the office parking lot. There were still cars there but the blinds were shut, doors locked and the sign said CLOSED even though the hours on the door stated 9-4PM and we were there at 3:05PM (took a picture). We were very sad as we drove over an hour from Hungry Mother State Park where we were staying to check out the ponies and grad some merch for our Trail Quest collection. I decided to at least grab some photos of inside the shop through one of the unobstructed windows when I noticed movement in the back. I nicely waved at them just to say hi and surprisingly they came to the door and graciously let us in to quickly purchase merch. We were coming up to a holiday weekend and I guess they were trying to get out early which I understand but it would've been nice if that information was posted online or somewhere before we drove so far. We picked up a couple of pins and hiking medallions and proceeded to drive back to the back of the park to find the ponies. Along the way we did stop at a large overlook on the right hand side. It had a couple of benches and a binocular station to look out. It was pretty cool sight but I think the sun had already set too far in the sky and a lot of the valley was in shadow. Once we made it back to the back, there is a long parking lot at Massie Gap that is adjacent to a large field where the trailhead for the Rhododendron Trail begins. This is the place to stop if you're looking for the phones. There were maybe 4 other cars there and the park closes at sunset. We decided to do a quick hike knowing we were racing the sunset. There are gates so make sure they close behind you. The signs for the national forest area looks like it's seen better days as much of the text was faded almost into illegibility probably from direct sunlight. Be aware there is little to no cell signal (Verizon) while we were in this area or on the trail. We passed a few hikers coming back down and asked if they saw horses. They all confirmed they were less than a mile out. I want to saw it was closer to 0.5 mile before we ran into the ponies. The hike itself wasn't too bad with a couple of washed out areas (probably hurricane Helene damage) but the views were amazing and the trail was different enough it kept our youngest very entertained. We soon came upon a horse and then 2 more. We didn't have a ton of time so we didn't want to go much further but our goal was accomplished. We didn't get too close but the horse wander right next to the trail and so we gladly took pictures. We saw further up the trail there were a couple of hikers petting the horse up there which we didn't think you were supposed to do. We turned back around after spending maybe 10-15 mins observing the horses. We wanted to do so many of the other trails from that clearing. But we were afraid we would lose the light too quickly and we would need to get out. 100% would do again. We would drive out of our way to come back here. There were so many trail options. We did have Hurricane Helene come through a couple months prior so some trails were still closed. Our thoughts were to come back with our scout groups and do some backpacking. The weather was perfect while we were there.

We visited Grayson Highlands in Virginia while camping in North Carolina. We paid a $7.00 parking fee to enter the park. It seems like a lot, but the park is clean and well-maintained, and dogs are allowed on all the trails, which is important to us. There is one main road in the park with spurs to the horse camp and the Homestead Stage, a venue for music events, but we were there to see the wild ponies. We hiked the most popular trail from Massie Gap to the park boundary via the Rhododendron Trail and the Appalachian Trail. The fresh pink and white Mountain Laurel blooming along the Rhododendron Trail was beautiful, as were the views of Wilburn Ridge and Mount Rogers. We were really excited to see wild ponies grazing in a wildflower meadow. Despite a short up-hill climb in the beginning, the 3-mile hike seemed easy. After our hike, we visited the large visitor's center, which was large and choked full of park theme merchandise. It reminded me of a Cracker Barrel store but with a nature theme. While we only explored one of many trails in the park, we were impressed by the scenery and look forward to returning there in the future.

Beautiful spot I will say virginia in december is no joke so pack extra clothes!!! Beautiful ponies though and amazing views to make some great memories! Definitely plan on going back soon.