It is Bear Tree. Group sites are described in the last couple of sentences in the Facilities paragraph on the website. They are semi-primitive. Vault toilets and a hand pump well. Regular toilets and a shower are about 300 yards away from the 4 group sites.
As far as I can tell, Reserve America is handling all of VA's park reservations. Their site seems to be a joke, or is broken. I can't tell.
I believe they are booked the weekend we are going.
We pulled our popup camper there once and it was fine. It is curvy but you have to drive those same roads to get there anyway.Originally Posted by miyanc
Looks like it may be moot though if its all booked up.
Yeah, reserveamerica is a pretty poorly coded website, and not much fun to deal with over the phone. Unfortunately, they handle the reservations for VA state parks...
As for info on the park itself, a good site to check is the Friends of Grayson Highlands page (http://www.graysonfriends.org/index.html) as well as the official VA DCR page for the park (http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-pa...al_information). The only group site I know of is next to (and slightly behind) the camp store. The group site has flush toilets and water available within 100 feet, with a bathhouse about 500 feet away.
The road to the park is curvy, but not extremely so...more like the Blue Ridge Parkway, less like the roads in the Cherokee/Little Switzerland section of the Smokies (if you've never driven there, the best way I can describe it is that somebody dropped a crumpled piece of string on a map and said "turn that into a road")
A good person to ask on this would be mlholland, she's one of the head rangers out there at Grayson Highlands SP.
bear tree is booked. grayson group site is still open.
Grayson group site has 4 or 5 pads for tents and 4 or 5 picnic tables. The rest of the site is sloped downhill from the pads. There are some other openings for other tents and lots of trees for hammocks
There are 2 ways to get there; US 58 up from Damascus (winding and twisting all the way, about 45 minutes minimum) and US 58 from the east side (VA/NC border area). I prefer coming thru NC to Elkin and cutting across from there. NOT nearly as winding but there are plenty of ups and downs (Blue Ridge Mtns for sure). Check the Grayson Fall Festival hang threads (2011, 12,13, and 14) for camp site photos and driving directions. See here for this years thread:https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-gt-Sept-25-28
Rockdawg69
It's a long way to the top if you want to Rock and Roll ----- those hills!!!
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I usually take the exit onto 21 at Elkin from 77 but if you keep heading north and go through Galax, you skip all the obnoxious turns through Roaring Gap.
You also get some great views of the New River.
This probably works out better if you want a nice meal as Galax is probably the closest town of any size on the way back. The detour probably adds ~15 minutes or so.
I read the title and immediately thought of this
My camping group has stayed at The Creeper Trail Campground at Whitetop several times. It is about a mile past where you start at Whitetop. You can start at the campground and shuttle back from Damascus. It is not as nice as Grayson but it is extremely convenient for the Creeper Trail and seems popular with scouts. It has a group area that has always had scout troops there when we went. No hammock spots there but I have hung up the hill in the individual sites. It is located on a Christmas tree farm which is kind of interesting. It has a bathroom and showers. They even rent bikes there if you need any. Sorry I just entered this thread. I have been very busy and have not been on here in a while.
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