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Planning our Trip to Staunton River State Park

First, a lesson in southern elocution. In Virginia, “Staunton” is pronounced as if it doesn’t have the ‘u’ at all. The correct pronunciation is “Stanton” (not “Stawnton”). We learned this early in our Virginia residence since there is a small city called Staunton just over the mountains west of Charlottesville. It took some getting used it.

what makes staunton river state park special?

Staunton River State Park is Virginia’s first designated International Dark Sky Park, meaning it is far enough away from population centers and the ‘noise’ from light pollution that night sky viewers are in for a starry sky. (Watoga State Park in West Virginia, which we’ve visited twice, also has this designation.) You can learn more about DarkSky International here.

While we’re not horse people ourselves, Staunton River State Park was designed with equestrians in mind. Almost all trails are horse friendly, and there is even a separate equestrian campground.

Staunton River has views of three bodies of water: Staunton River (the local name for what is also the Roanoke River), the Dan River, and Buggs Island Lake, the largest lake in Virginia, which was formed by the building of a reservoir, which submerged a portion of the park (they’ve since added more adjoining land).

HOW WE DETERMINED OUR DESTINATION: staunton river STATE PARK

A few years ago, we discovered the joy of staying in state park cabins to put ourselves within walking distance of many hikes.  We visited West Virginia’s largest state park, Watoga, and stayed in a rustic CCC cabin. In fact, we liked that so much, we took a second trip to Watoga. Read about both our first and second trips to Watoga here.  Since then, we have visited many state parks in Virginia and surrounding states, including Breaks Interstate Park (read about that trip here); Carters Cave in Kentucky (read here), Smith Mountain Lake State Park (read here) and Hungry Mother State Park (read here), both in Virginia.

Honestly, we ended up going to Staunton River State Park based on availability. The two other state parks in the running - Fairy Stone State Park and Douthat State Park - were both already booked by the time we decided our new puppy was mature enough to travel with us. Occoneechee State Park and Staunton River State Park are only about 45 minutes from each other. Neither had a large swath of availability but they had consecutive days. So, we booked two nights at Occoneechee and three nights at Staunton River. As it turned out, our oldest dog, nearly 14-year old Tara, had an upset stomach so we had to take her to the vet and ensure she was healthy to travel so we ended up missing the Occoneechee leg of our trip entirely and instead headed straight to our three nights at Staunton River State Park.

where is staunton river STATE PARK?

Staunton River State Park is located in the portion of Virginia known as Southside. It is in the southern part of the state, right near the border with North Carolina and in the middle - neither coastal nor as far inland as the Blue Ridge and the start of Southwestern Virginia.

From Roanoke (where we live), the Roanoke River flows to the coast. Along the way, the same body of water becomes known as the Staunton River to the locals for about 80 miles of its journey. The Staunton River passes right near the town of Scottsburg (not to be confused with Virginia’s town of Scottsville, just south of Charlottesville) and at the confluence with the Dan River sits some jutting land that holds Staunton River State Park. This area was once a prime producer of tobacco, an economically important crop for Virginia. Staunton River State Park is about a 2 hour 10 minute drive from Roanoke; about 3 hours from Charlotte, NC; and about 2 hours from Richmond.

Because it is a rural area, the routes that carry visitors from these larger cities are typically fairly windy country roads. No major interstate goes through the area.

WHERE WE STAYED: CABIN ACCOMMODATIONS IN staunton river STATE PARK

Staunton River State Park hosts 8 cabins that vary in size from efficiencies to 1- and 2-bedrooms. Additionally, there is a campground and a separate equestrian campground.

We stayed in Cabin #3, a one-bedroom. Cabin #1 is ADA accessible. And all the cabins sit in a row alongside each other (some other parks scatter cabins in multiple areas). They sit along the Staunton River, though the view of the water is somewhat obstructed by trees along its banks.

The cabins are spaced out enough that while you’re aware of your neighbors, you also feel you have reasonable privacy with some cabins a little closer than others.

We usually try to book a two bedroom cabin to have extra space for storage and for the pups, but in this case, we went with what was available, which was the one bedroom. In general, most state park cabins are fairly cozy with limited to no closet space so for trips that include a cooler, hiking backpacks, days of dog food, etc. extra space is worth the cost to us.

The cabin at Staunton River State Park is possibly the cutest of the state park cabins we’ve stayed in. It appears that their cabins were all renovated about 2020 so even though they are original CCC cabins, they felt new-ish) inside.

The layout of cabin #3 was as follows: after two steps up into the front door, you enter the family room, which has a large stone fireplace to the left. Along the same wall as the front door is the bathroom. Immediately to the side of th bathroom is the bedroom, accessed via the family room. Looking straight ahead from the front door is one of two back doors out onto the park back porch that overlooks the lake. And to the back left of the cabin is the kitchen, which contains the second door to the porch. There is no separate dining room, but the family room contains a small bistro table that worked well for the two of us. Technically this cabin can accommodate four people (two would need to sleep on an air mattress or similar in the family room).

Outside, to the right of the porch, is a gravel picnic area that includes a picnic table, fire pit ring, and camping grill.

We were able to rearrange some furniture in the family room to make room for our two dog enclosures. (Normally we travel with one enclosure but with an 8 month old puppy and two senior dogs (nearly 13 and nearly 14), we thought it would be wise to let them get some rest away from the other dog generation.

As with other Virginia state parks, visitors must bring their own sheets and towels. The kitchen is outfitted with standard kitchen accessories - coffee maker, toaster, utensils, plates, bowls, cups, pots and pans, and various things like tongs. Unlike private home rentals or some other vacation homes, there are no food items available in Virginia state park cabins - this means there isn’t salt and pepper or the like.

The park has 20 cabins for rent.  They are a combination of the older CCC cabins and newer ones built out of cinder block.  Having stayed in a CCC cabin in West Virginia and found it to be a bit drafty, we opted this time for the new cinder block build, which has less aesthetic appeal, though it’s absolutely functional with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a family room/dining area around a fireplace. Of the various state park cabins we’ve stayed in (in VA, WV, and KY), this one was the least visually appealing on the inside.

The appeal of the park is, for us anyway, hiking! 

WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRIP TO staunton river STATE PARK?

• This was our first true trip in 15 months between contending with health concerns with our older dog, Sophie, who we lost last December; our new puppy, Camille, who we welcomed in April; and a mixture of home projects and a job change thrown in for good measure. Just getting away to relax and hike for a few days was something we don’t take for granted.

• Hiking in the fall in Virginia is fantastic and the weather performed perfectly. We had beautiful bright blue skies, some leaf color (due to drought in Virginia, this year isn’t as spectacular as other years), and the calming views of the rivers and lake throughout the hikes.

• The hikes in the park were varied to keep things interested and generally pretty low-key in the fairly flat terrain. This seemed more like gentle walks in the woods versus more intensive hiking up and down mountains, which we tend to do more of in our home of Roanoke.

Hiking in Staunton River State Park

trip overview of staunton river state park

Staunton River State Park has 11 distinct trails, though a few are only accessible via others.  They range in length from a small cut-over and accessible trail at 0.2 miles to a 8.6 mile River Bank Trail. Other than three tiny trails (0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 miles), all are open to hikers, horses, and bikes.  Only two of the very short trails are listed as easy, the rest are classified as moderate. Moderate, as defined by this park trail guide, is defined as trails from 1-5 miles where at least 60% of the trail is fairly flat.

With two full days in the park, we decided to map out the various hiking routes we planned to take.  Since several of the trails are only accessible by first taking another path, or you can use a few to form a loop, we determined four individual hikes we could take that would cover all of the trails in the park.  Our standard schedule when visiting and staying at a state park is to go for a morning hike, return to the cabin to walk the dogs, eat lunch, and refill our water, then go on an afternoon hike before returning for dinner and to relax in the evenings.  Ultimately, we decided to take three of these four trails and spent the afternoon of our second day relaxing at the cabin.

The park was quiet during our visit, which was a Wednesday through Saturday in mid-October. While there were other guests at the campground and cabins, we only saw one other group of three hikers our first morning and a duo riding horses on another trail that afternoon. Other than that, the trails were ours to explore!

checking in at staunton river state park

We arrived around 4:30pm (check-in begins at 4pm). This was 8-month old puppy Camille’s first vacation, so we weren’t sure what to expect. She was fantastic during the 2-hour car ride, snuggled in the backseat with her big sisters, Tara and Gretchen, who are pros at state park vacations. Gretchen typically gets a little nervous on car rides but having two calm sisters seemed to help. (Our prior dog, Sophie, tended to be a bit more high strung like Gretchen so clearly they fed off of each other!)

The state park was easy to find. Upon entering, the “district office” building has a sign telling guests to head to the newer visitor’s center for check-in.  Just a short drive further up the road is a larger visitor’s center that has a gift shop and some basics for campers. Check-in was a breeze.

We were able to park close to the cabin so unpacking and getting our three Labrador retrievers settled in was a breeze.

Day 1: river bank trail to robin’s roost trail to river bank trail and twin loops trail via river bank trail

River Bank Trail, which is 8.6 miles, is the longest trail in the park and is the trail by which many other trails can be accessed. As a result, we cut up the River Bank Trail into segments to create multiple loop trails; this means that you’ll see a lot of reference to the River Bank Trail but each time is a different segment. We did hike that entire trail via this different routes. In order to more clearly follow the paths we took, see the color-coded map further down.

Morning total hiking time and distance: This is the hike highlighted in blue on our map above. For our morning hike, we walked from our cabin to a nearby trailhead to take the River Bank Trail to Robin’s Roost Trail and then connected back to a different portion of River Bank Trail before walking back to the cabin. In total, we traversed 5.32 miles (per my Garmin GPS) over the course of 2 hours and 14 minutes.

From our cabin, we walked down the road about 0.15 miles to catch the first trailhead: River Bank Trail.  We would take River Bank Trail to Robin’s Roost Trail, and back over to a different portion of River Bank Trail.  Robin’s Roost Trail is 1.3 miles.  We selected this as our first hike in the park because it has multiple viewing spots of the two rivers that run alongside the park: Staunton River and Dan River.  Where they connect there is also a lake, which is also a reservoir.  Buggs Island Lake (and John H. Kerr Reservoir) is the largest lake in Virginia!

Early on in the hike, we saw a number of various sized bird feathers strewn on the ground, so there clearly had been some sort of aerial bird battle the night or day before.  We walked along the Staunton River for a large portion of the trail initially, though often the trail was just inland enough or the trees were thick enough that it didn’t lend itself for large, sweeping water views.  Still, we had enough glimpses of pretty blue and green water on a bright blue sky day. 

There is a viewing spot along the river that we were able to enjoy.  That viewing spot can also be accessed directly via a 0.4 mile Captain Staunton Trail.  Even there, there were some trees in the way of a truly open water views.  A bit further along the River Bank Trail, we did come upon open views of the water and even a small beach on the banks – at least with the current water levels.

And I guess it is worth noting that it has been an unusually dry spell in Virginia, which is both good and bad for hiking.  It means that small, seasonal creeks are often fully dried up.  It also allows us to avoid muddy trails.  Staunton River State Park is an equestrian park, which means people can bring their horses (there is an equestrian campground, too) and that essentially all trails are horse-friendly.  From prior experience, we know that horses + trails + even a little rain can equate to deep troughs of water and a muddy hike.  So, we lucked out in this case that the ground is pretty dry and we could co-exist peacefully as hikers and equestrians.

Eventually we came upon Robin’s Roost Trail (1.3 miles), which cut inland.  We really enjoyed Robin’s Roost Trail, which was very different than the other part of the park.  According to the trail guide, this area is a native Oak Hickory Forest and represents the original ecosystem in the area before humans influenced the growth.

Upon meeting up with the River Bank Trail, we had more sightings of the river, this time the Dan River, and got to enjoy a particularly open area with views of the huge river/lake and a wide river bank. 

Afternoon total hiking time and distance: This is the route parked pink on our map above. After lunch and a short rest, we decided to tackle Twin Loops Trail (2.5 miles) with access via a different segment of the River Bank Trail.  All-in this hike was 4.38 miles and took us about an hour and 50 minutes.

There is a parking lot and horse trailer lot off the main park road that is a great access point to this trail, so we hopped in the car for a short drive down the road to find the trailhead. We did actually pass two people riding their horses on the trail shortly after we began our hike.

In the parking lot, we found a trail map that showed an extra leg of the Twin Loops Trail that wasn’t on our trail guide.  Upon starting the hike, we saw that additional segment was closed, so our assumption was that it has been closed long enough that they updated the park trail guide brochure to remove it but have left it on the map at the trailhead since that one would be harder to update. 

So, we headed up the River Bank Trail, which is quite wide through this area, and met up Twin Loops Trail.  Twin Loops Trail is, as you might expect, a trail with two separate loops.  Think of a weirdly shaped figure eight.  Because of the way they connect and veer off a few times, we got ourselves a tad confused about where we were and which way we should go, even when looking at the trail map.  Not very confused but enough that we had to think about it more than we usually do. 

{Hiking tip: In addition to using my Garmin watch with a GPS to track our hiking, I also use the Runkeeper app on my phone.  One thing I love about the Runkeeper app is that it charts our course on a map.  It gives me an extra sense of where I am in an area.  In this case, we used that app to look at the path we’d walked and compared it to the trail guide to confirm where we were.  We’ve also used it on a long very rural hike in West Virginia where we were never fully sure we were on the right path.  When the app showed us starting to veer back to our car, we felt comfortable for the first time that we’d get back as planned!}

Twin Loops Trail was very much a forested one with undulating hills, and a combination of wide and narrow track.  We had a few run-ins with spider webs on the trail, and I finally had Dustin walk in front.  He ended up with a terrifying/pretty (depending on who you ask) orb-weaver with a giant yellow triangle on it (an arrowhead orb-weaver). He handled it much better than I would have so it was a good thing he was in the lead for that moment. In my defense, I was quick to grab a stick to try to brush the spider off of him. He was disappointed he didn’t get a better look at it. I have since googled this spider and found the online picture to be ample viewing for my needs.

DAY 2: crow’s nest trail to river bank trail

Before embarking on our main hike for the day, we decided to take puppy Camille on her first ‘hike’. We walked from the cabin to a ‘view of lake’ spot indicated on the map. This trek was a bit over a mile in total and took us down to a pretty beach at the confluence of the Staunton and Dan Rivers and with the lake straight ahead. The size of the lake surprised us (and no wonder it is the largest lake in Virginia). Camille had a joyous time romping into the water, where she stuck her snout in to grab submerged sticks (of course). All of this excited her so much that she started running in fast loops around Dustin (the closest she could get to running like a maniac on a leash). She ended up with a sandy, dirty snout and dirty paws and legs, none of which she regretted. This was definitely her highlight of the trip, and the photos are pretty hilarious. This is the hike marked purple on our map above.

Morning total hiking time and distance: This is the hike marked green on our map above. In the morning, after our mini hike with Camille, we decided to take Crow’s Nest Trail to the southern portion of the River Bank Trail, the final segment we hadn’t yet explored. All-in, this total hike was 3.68 miles, and we went this one a little more slowly due to a sore foot so spent about an hour and forty minutes.

We set out to explore the other chunk of River Bank Trail in a way to not back-track the portions we hiked the previous day.  To accomplish this, we drive to the “District Office” (not to be confused with the newer, larger Visitor’s Center).  From there we walked up the road a little bit to access the Crow’s Nest Trail, a trail of about 0.4 miles in length that cuts over to the bank of the Dan River.  The trail guide brochure shared that Crow’s Nest Trail was the site of a 2011 tornado, which left the area more open than other parts of the park.  It is a great place to observe a forest’s recovery about a decade and a half onwards.

Crow’s Nest Trail comes to an end when it meets up with the River Bank Trail, which we took south along the Dan River before it looped inland again and eventually met back up with the main park road.  We could walk along that road back to our car at the District Office. 

We very much enjoyed the hike.  It meandered up and over small hills, close-ish to the river bank with the water visible through the trees, and a variety of different trees.  The path was fairly wide at times and narrow at others, and at one point it went through a pine forest that appears to be managed to allow for culling and containment of the understory. 

In the afternoon, we decided to relax at the cabin and enjoyed sitting outside to read and write on a beautiful fall day.

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BUY HERE: A Short History of Ancient Rome by Pascal Hughes

book stats:

352 pages, published November 11, 2025 (I received an Advanced Reading Copy)

you may enjoy this book if you like:

Ancient Roman History * Non-Fiction * European History

travel inspiration:

Rome! I decided to read this as a precursor to an upcoming trip to Rome to provide even greater context for what we’d see on the trip.

about the author: Pascal hughes

Pascal Hughes is founder of a podcast that focuses on content for lovers of history. A Short History of Ancient Rome is his first book.

review of a short history of ancient rome by pascal hughes

A Short History of Ancient Rome by Pascal Hughes is exactly what it purports to be.  Hughes does an excellent job charting the history of Rome’s founding by Romulus in the eighth century BC to the date typically cited as the end of the Roman empire in 476 AD with the incursion of the Huns into the West of Europe.

It goes without saying that undertaking a ‘short history’ of a period of about 1200 years is a big task.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy of this work of non-fiction and was particularly attracted to it in light of an upcoming trip to Rome.  I also have a better than average knowledge of ancient Rome.  I spent four years in high school taking Latin, translating stories that were immersed in Roman legend and histories, and gaining familiarity with Roman customs and societal norms along the way.  Beyond that, I enjoy history and have read many books that delve deeply into more specific eras of the Roman empire’s story.

What I have felt is lacking in my own knowledge is a macro view of how the story of Rome unfolded over time in a way where its progression made sense.  Of course the Rome of its first few centuries was not the same as the Rome over a thousand years later.  But in what ways did it change, why did it change, and why did it matter to where it headed next.

A Short History of Ancient Rome – over 350 pages – brought the rise and downfall into clear view in a way that was digestible.

How did Hughes accomplish this huge task?  The story of Rome is split into 18 chapters that progress chronologically.  Each one picks a moment in time that was important or meaningful – either because of a key ruler (e.g., Nero) or a key element (e.g., Pompeii’s destruction at the foot of Mount Vesuvius).

Then, because a good work of non-fiction needs to be engaging for a reader, Hughes utilized an interesting technique in writing each of these 18 chapters.  He generally started with a compelling story from the viewpoint of a key character – for example, in the heat of an important battle.  That immediately drew me in as a reader and made the ancient characters come to life.  Then, Hughes pulled back a bit with an italicized section that helped broaden the aperture for what the reader should wonder about.  From there, Hughes delved into a more typical telling of the history that drove the narrative to that story that unfolded at the beginning of the chapter.  In each case, how this particular segment connected with the broader story was also clarified.  Sprinkled throughout were embedded ‘side panel’ type descriptions of specific details that would be of interest to a reader: what were the four types of gladiators? What was the origin, purpose, and experience of Vestal Virgins?

It is hard to read about the rise and fall of a great empire without recognizing its internal flaws and failings that – from its beginning – may have set it on a course for disaster.  I have always felt like Rome was a brutal place with endless killings of leaders, larger than life personalities, but also a vivid social and cultural life that left us both art and infrastructure that survive all these years later.  While the book didn’t have the space to delve into every topic – like the true life of a plebian (i.e., commoner) – it did touch upon this at times and certainly took a larger, self-aware view of all that was missing in its postscript.  Interestingly, the postscript also addressed the fact that of course Rome didn’t just stop suddenly one day – as a year of its fall would suggest – but it was a slow deterioration.  Even then, the Eastern portion of Rome had strong days ahead and the Western half had set a foundation for brilliant Renaissance years later.

For anyone interested in a highly engaging survey-style course in ancient Rome, this is a fantastic place to start.  I actually wish I had read this before reading some of the other books on Rome I’ve read, as it helps to place them at the right place in time.

Want to check this book out for yourself? BUY HERE: A Short History of Ancient Rome by Pascal Hughes

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Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you. US Ghost Adventures contacted us and offered us the opportunity for a complimentary tour in exchange for our honest review.

Interested in booking a tour in Roanoke? Book here!

We are not part of the roughly half of Americans who believe in ghosts. (Various surveys report between 40-60% of Americans believe in ghosts.) So, when US Ghost Adventures contacted us to see if we’d like a complimentary ghost tour in one of several cities, my natural inclination was to decline. But then I thought, what the heck, why not?! Neither of us has ever gone on a ghost tour before, so we had no preconceived idea of what to expect. Part of the reason I’ve never gone on one is because it’s not really my thing; for another, when I’m in a city, a ghost tour would never make anywhere near the top of my priority list of what I want to do; and also, I’ll admit that I get scared pretty easily. As Dustin is quick to point out, how can you get scared if you don’t believe in ghosts? Fair point. And I think it’s the idea that something could be creeping around that weirds me out, even if I don’t think there is. I was the kid who at sleepover stories would go hide in my sleeping bag covering my ears when the ghost stories came out. So a small part of me said yes to prove that I can totally handle this! My 10-year-old self would be impressed.

In this post, I’ll share a bit about US Ghost Adventures, which operates in many locations, and I’ll also focus specifically on the experience on the Roanoke, Virginia, tour.

What is US Ghost Adventures?

(If all you’re interested in is the Roanoke, Virginia, experience, please skip ahead to the next section!)

The origin story of US Ghost Adventures is pretty interesting in and of itself. Its early origin dates to 2012 when its founder, Lance Zaal, decided to try his hand at an entrepreneurial endeavor. After September 11th, a 17-year old Zaal enlisted in the US Marines and completed a couple of deployments in Iraq and one in Latin America before heading to college. There, he began early entrepreneurial efforts like creating a not-for-profit to assist other veterans. Zaal worked on his MBA and got exposure to consulting firms. As part of his graduate program, he needed to develop a business and since he was a bit of a foodie who made recommendations to friends in town, he started a foodie tour and learned a lot about running a business. During his final semester in business school, he was laid off from his full-time job and long story short, ended up creating a ghost tour business after going on a ghost tour and identifying ways to make it even better.

What’s also interesting about Zaal is that he is a mission-driven individual focused on improving lives of others around him. His business donates to various causes that align with the mission to better lives (read more here), and as it got established, it started building in a historic preservation component. US Ghost Adventures' first major purchase was the Lizzie Borden House in 2021, followed by several other historic properties.

You can read more about Lance Zaal on his personal website here.

Today, US Ghost Adventures operates in over 200 US cities with the goal of ‘shining a light on the forgotten, honoring the past, and making the world a little better - one story, one experience, one guest at a time.’

US Ghost Adventures - Tour in Roanoke, Virginia

The Roanoke US Ghost Adventures tour is currently (as of Fall 2025) offered nightly at 8pm. The tour meets downtown at the First Baptist Church at 7:45pm. We selected a Saturday night in mid-October, which I imagine may be a more popular time - beautiful weather and spooky Halloween around the corner. In addition to us, there were ten other individuals, mostly adult couples. Our tour guide was friendly, a great storyteller, and brand new - she told us we were her first tour and her prior experience shadowing a colleague was in another city. She definitely had studied in advance and did a great job for her first tour.

How long is the US Ghost Adventures tour in roanoke?

The tour is supposed to last an hour with one mile of walking. By the time we made it back to the car, it was about 70 minutes in total and 1.7 miles according to my GPS watch. There is an ‘extended tour’ option, which we did not have, which is supposed to add another 30 minutes and up to four additional locations.

what route does the us ghost adventures tour take in roanoke?

After starting at the First Baptist Church, the tour proceeds along the tour route with stops as specific points for the tour guide to share stories of hauntings at that location. The route took us first to the beautiful Tudor-style Hotel Roanoke and the nearby O. Winston Link Museum before crossing the train tracks via overpass to the main part of downtown Roanoke. Once in the heart of downtown Roanoke, the stops included the historic City Market building, Corned Beef & Company (restaurant), Bernard’s Gastropub (restaurant), Mill Mountain Theater, and old Opera Roanoke (now a modern hotel).

what to expect on the roanoke ghost tour through us ghost adventures

It is important to note that the tour guides do not have permission to access any of these buildings and so the tour will remain outside while stories of the location are shared. If you go on a beautiful night like we did, it’s a great way to get to explore Roanoke at night and get some fun night photography along the way.

In addition to sharing prepared stories as part of the tour, our guide shared her one personal tale of a haunting, and she encouraged others on the tour to share theirs. Two individuals indicated they’d had some potential experience with a ghost and shared their stories.

In addition to the regular tour or the extended tour option, guests can also rent (in advance) an EMF detector that will (purportedly) tell them if ghosts are nearby. On our tour of 12, two individuals had EMF detectors, and neither detected anything. (The science of an EMF detector is that it indicates Electromagnetic Fields. These can be caused by all sorts of electricity and electrical devices.)

would we recommend us ghost tours roanoke?

It depends on what you’re looking for. If you are a ghost and hauntings aficionado, then absolutely. If you enjoy ghost stories and the idea of a guided tour through a city at night, yes. If you don’t believe in ghosts, aren’t particularly interested in a nighttime walking tour, and have a high expectation of compelling ghost stories, this probably isn’t the right activity for you. At least one other guest on our tour talked about taking other ghost tours in other cities, so this definitely seems to be a whole world of ghost tours that we previously knew nothing about. We appreciate the opportunity to have this experience and view our city in a new way. Want to book your own tour in Roanoke or one of the hundreds of other cities? Book a tour in Roanoke here. And view the currently available other locations here!

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book stats:

352 pages, to be published in January 2026 (I read an Advanced Reading Copy)

you may enjoy this book if you like:

U.S. History * American Revolutionary War * Biographies

travel inspiration:

Tom Paine’s War follows Thomas Paine and his Revolutionary War brethren through the northeast US, primarily in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with many historic sites open to visitors today.

about the author: Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly is a historian and author of six other works: God Save Benedict Arnold (2023) (read our review here), Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty (2021), The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America (2019), Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Eric Canal (2017), Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence (2014), and Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World (2005).

In addition to his historical works, he has written for national publications and has appeared on NPR, PBS, and The History Channel. He is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

review of Tom Paine’s war by jack kelly

Students of American history are aware of Thomas Paine as the author of Common Sense, an important Revolutionary War era tome. But - speaking for myself, an avid reader of history and political science major - I couldn’t have associated anything with Paine beyond his authorship of that one work. So, when I saw Jack Kelly’s work of non-fiction available as an advanced reading copy, I was quick to download it. I had previously read and reviewed Kelly’s work on Benedict Arnold and enjoyed his accessible writing style and telling some of history’s lesser known stories.

The full title of this new book is Tom Paine’s War: The Words that Rallied a Nation and the Founder for our Time. This full title explains Kelly’s two focus areas for the book: first, bringing to life the important and under-valued role Paine played in the American Revolutionary War; and second, addresses why this story is important in our modern era and why Paine isn’t more well known and studied as a true founder of the United States.

Writing an engaging work of history can be quite challenging. The author has facts, often somewhat limited; hopefully a number of first-person accounts to humanize the events as they were seen by those who lived through them; has to bring the tale together in a way that engages a modern reader which requires some artistic license (e.g., imagining the still air on a battlefield and describing it vividly); and is able to tell a multi-dimensional story. The last point is particularly important. In retrospect, history can seem like a series of dates and actions that occurred linearly, but of course we know based on our own lived experience that multiple things happen at once, can trigger additional events in ways that are not always clear-cut, and sometimes understanding the big picture requires zooming way out to see the passage of time.

Kelly succeeds in tackling all these aspects. One approach he takes quite effectively in Tom Paine’s War is to intermingle chapters that provide Paine’s backstory before jumping back in to the action leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. Otherwise, this book could have been a bunch of backstory followed by more history intensive war chapters. Breaking them up for more varied reading is a great technique!

Thomas Paine was clearly a smart and entrepreneurial man, whose life varied between good luck (e.g., Benjamin Franklin wrote him an introductory letter when he emigrated to America, helping him get set up and able to print Common Sense) and cards stacked against him (e.g., in later life, he became a victim of a fervent mixture of politics and religion, ended up being mistakenly viewed as an atheist, and was imprisoned and nearly executed during France’s Reign of Terror).

More than anything, Paine knew how to tap into the sentiment of the everyman, to inspire people to greatness, and how to write for his audience. While many of Paine’s verbose peers had mastery of the written word, Paine purposefully wrote in plain English to be accessible to others. He also understood that the written word was often read aloud in taverns and among colleagues, and so he wrote with the understanding that his words would be spoken, which requires a simpler way of writing.

Kelly makes a compelling case that demonstrates the impact Paine had on the initial revolutionary spirit and also how his later works inspired the hearts of minds of the colonists during the darkest days of the war when their cause appeared to be doomed. Paine was not an academic who wrote from his home but rather joined Washington on the field, capturing descriptions of battle and military movement as it unfolded around him.

Like Benedict Arnold, the focus on the last book of Kelly’s that I read, Thomas Paine has also been ill-served by history for the significant role he played in the early history of the country.

The final chapters and epilogue make clear Kelly’s second reason for writing this book. There are obvious parallels between the factions that emerged in Paine’s latter years and current events in the United States. Any good historian understands that each era is different and that lessons from similar events in the past can be good lessons for the present. Kelly articulated describes the why behind his decision to connect this book to our current times without hitting the reader over the head with a particular viewpoint.

For anyone who enjoys reading non-fiction about early US history and warfare, I highly recommend Tom Paine’s War.

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Planning our Trip to Hungry Mother State Park

HOW WE DETERMINED OUR DESTINATION: hungry mother STATE PARK

A few years ago, we discovered the joy of staying in state park cabins to put ourselves within walking distance of many hikes.  We visited West Virginia’s largest state park, Watoga, and stayed in a rustic CCC cabin. In fact, we liked that so much, we took a second trip to Watoga. Read about both our first and second trips to Watoga here.  Next, we explored the borderlands between Virginia and Kentucky at Breaks Interstate Park, where we stayed in a much more modern, nicer cabin. (Read about that trip here.) 

When we decided to do a short fall getaway, we wanted a Virginia state park within a few hours of our home for convenience and, of course, one that would allow our three large dogs.  While state park cabins are typically much more accommodating to dogs – especially large ones and more than two – not all allow them. 

With Douthat State Park and Hungry Mother State Park both in the running, we finally decided on Hungry Mother for the number and length of trails and the fact that smack dab in the middle is a large lake.  Late October in Virginia can still bring beautiful fall colors, so we decided to cross our fingers and hope for fall leaves set against the lake backdrop, and boy did we luck out in that toss of the dice!

But yes, before we go further, we should respond to the question in your head: “Why on earth is this called ‘Hungry Mother’ State Park?”  It does merit some attention, that’s for sure.  The thing is, while we wondered, we also didn’t take the time to research it until we got to the park and found the history, so I’m going to make you wait a little longer, too.

Since we would always prefer to avoid crowds, it also means that visiting off season is more low-key.  In the summer, there is a beach and swimming area in the lake, replete with life guards.  There are kayaks, canoes, paddle boats, and stand-up paddle boats for rent.  There is also a snack shop.

where is hungry mother STATE PARK?

The drive from Roanoke (where we live) to Hungry Mother State Park, in Marion, Virginia, was a little less than two hours, most of which is on I-81, making it really easy to access. The park is in Southwestern Virginia, a rural part of the state, meaning that it is more often close to cities in other states.  The park is about 2.5 hours from Charlotte, NC, and Knoxville, TN. It is a bit over 4 hours from Richmond, VA.

WHERE WE STAYED: CABIN ACCOMMODATIONS IN hungry mother STATE PARK

There are several campgrounds within the park.  With temperatures above average during our fall visit, there were a large number of visitors camping in tents in late October.  Yeah, mid-70s in the mountains of Virginia in late October is not the norm, but lucky for us!

The park has 20 cabins for rent.  They are a combination of the older CCC cabins and newer ones built out of cinder block.  Having stayed in a CCC cabin in West Virginia and found it to be a bit drafty, we opted this time for the new cinder block build, which has less aesthetic appeal, though it’s absolutely functional with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a family room/dining area around a fireplace. Of the various state park cabins we’ve stayed in (in VA, WV, and KY), this one was the least visually appealing on the inside.

The appeal of the park is, for us anyway, hiking! 

WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRIP TO hungry mother STATE PARK?

• This was truly an entirely hiking-filled vacation, and the highlights were the gorgeous views of the lake within the park. The surrounding mountains, particularly from Molly’s Knob, offer a sweeping view.

Hiking in Hungry Mother State Park

trip overview

Hungry Mother has 10 distinct trails, though a few are only accessible via others.  They range in length from a small cut-over trail at 0.2 miles to a 5.7 mile Lake Trail Loop (which our GPS clocked at about 6 miles).  All but one are jointly usable by hikers and mountain bikers.  Only one – a short cut-over between two other trails – is listed as an easy trail.  The rest are classified as moderate or difficult.

With three full days in the park, we decided to map out the various hiking routes we planned to take.  Since several of the trails are only accessible by first taking another path, or you can use a few to form a loop, we determined six individual hikes we could take that would cover just about all of the trails in the park.  Our standard schedule when visiting and staying at a state park is to go for a morning hike, return to the cabin to walk the dogs, eat lunch, and refill our water, then go on an afternoon hike before returning for dinner and to relax in the evenings.  Based on the combination of trails we planned, each day would have about 7-8 miles of hiking.

Day 1: Raiders Run Trail to Old Shawnee Trail and Lake Trail Loop

We started the day hiking Raider’s Run Trail, which begins at Parking Lot 2 with an immediate incline.  The trail eventually connects to the Old Shawnee Trail, which loops out and around before catching up with the remainder of Raider’s Run.  These trails had some elevation change – about 200+ in net gain – and mostly were undulating hills and valleys in the woods.  The fall leaves made for beautiful vistas, and we walked through and near a number of Rhododendron thickets.  This hike took us just over an hour.

In the afternoon, we decided to take the longest single hike in the park, the Lake Trail Loop.  While the park map says it is 5.7 miles in length, our GPS counted it as 5.95 miles.  We spent about 2 ½ hours on this hike, which first skirts the road along the lake shore before crossing beyond the earthen dam and heading to the opposite shore.  Once on the other side of the lake, the trail becomes more difficult – less flat, more climbing up and down minor hills.  We passed about 7 people biking along the lake in the first section but saw no bikers on the other side of the lake. 

The biggest highlight of this hike was simply the views.  You can’t beat beautiful fall leaves next to the lake and with bright foliage on the surrounding hills.  Add a picture perfect blue sky day to the mix, and you come close to what we experienced.  This is – we assume – the most popular hike in the park.  During our morning hike, we saw no other hikers.  On this one, we passed perhaps 15 people on the first leg of the trail; on the opposite bank, we passed two couples and one solo female hiker.

DAY 2: STONE LICK TRAIL AND CLYBURN RIDGE AND MOLLY’S KNOB TRAIL TO VISTA TRAIL

For our morning hike, we decided to take Stone Lick Trail, loop a section at its summit that overlaps with a portion of Clyburn Ridge Trail, and head back down Stone Lick Trail for a total hike of 2.4 miles that took us an hour and 15 minutes.  With over 400 feet in elevation gain, the first part of the trail was fairly steep, and the top part was a more low-key ridge walk. 

We really enjoyed this trail and the beautiful coves of trees.  On one side of the mountain on the way up, all trees in our view were toting yellow leaves.  As soon as we curved around a mountain bend, the other side held trees of orange and red hues.  From atop the ridge, we had views of surrounding ridgelines and one in particular stood out as being particularly tall and more steeply angled than many of Virginia’s undulating hilltops. 

As we would discover later in the day, that tall mountain is actually the highest point in the park – Molly’s Knob – and the views from it are wide-reaching.

In the afternoon, we selected Molly’s Knob Trail (1.9 miles) to Vista Trail (0.4 miles), an out-and-back trail that doubled the length.  Because the last bit of Molly’s Knob Trail continues in a different direction than the Vista Trail and then meets up with another trail (the C.C.C. Trail), we decided to take Molly’s Knob straight up to Vista Trail and cut off the tail end of the trail.  Our total hike was about 3.8 miles. 

The elevation change from the start of the hike to the summit is 1,010 feet, the last 347 of which occur in a strenuous 0.4 mile climb.  There is a section in the middle of this hike that is relatively flat along a ridgeline but other than that, it is very much uphill.  The views along the hike are definitely worth it, especially in the fall.  But the view from the top is amazing. 

Mount Rogers, the highest peak in Virginia, is visible from the top of the summit off to the left, and out in front are sweeping views over multiple ridgelines since Molly’s Knob is the highest in the area, coming in at 3,270 feet.  We met a couple of hikers on our way up and four more plus a golden retriever on our way down. 

DAY 3: CLYBURN RIDGE TRAIL

The Clyburn Ridge Trail sits along the Hungry Mother Lake and spends that first half of its distance climbing up several hundred feet where it then runs alongside the lake, weaving in and out of the mountains.  Before heading away from the lake, the trail first descends and then ascends back to an absolutely gorgeous spot overlooking the lake and the surrounding mountains.  Across the way, we could see Molly’s Knob towering above.  That is always a weird feeling to see a very tall mountain and to know we’ve climbed it just the day before.

Once Clyburn Ridge Trail veered away from the lake, it dipped down to a spot where it met up with the Clyburn Hollow Trail, a cutover for those interested in a 2.5 mile hike instead of a 4.0 mile hike.  We continued on our original path, winding in and around the curves of the hills.  Taking the longer route, we clocked in at just over 2 hours hiking this path.

We really enjoyed the trail – it was peaceful and just the right mix of hilly and flat along ridgelines.  And ultimately, that’s how we felt about all of the hikes we took in Hungry Mother State Park – we truly enjoyed them all, which is not always reflective of a series of hikes.  I’m sure the fact that we were able to enjoy fall colors helped, but the area is gorgeous and most of the hikes provided various views of the distant mountains and scenery.

We were tentatively thinking of tackling the last main trail in the park we hadn’t gotten to you – the C.C.C. – in the afternoon, but we’d also been sleeping horribly at night for whatever reason.  So we weighed doing this extra hike, followed by a final poor night’s sleep or returning home a little early and sleeping in our own bed.  We voted for an early departure to get better sleep and wrapped up a wonderful three fall days at Hungry Mother!

Why is the park called Hungry Mother?

the legend of hungry mother

Because I can’t take any credit for the tale behind the name, I’m going to quote verbatim the brochure we received in the park.

“The Legend of Hungry Mother takes many forms and all have whispers of the truth. The one widely accepted by the people of Southwest Virginia goes like this . . .

“Legend has it that a pioneer named Molly Marley and her small child were captured by a Native American tribe and taken to their mountain camp. Molly and her little one eventually escaped and wandered through the woods foraging for food and searching for shelter. One day Molly collapsed from exhaustion and the youngster continued along the creek until help was found. The only words the child could utter were ‘Hungry Mother.’ A search party later found Molly dead at the foot of the mountain near the creek.

“The mountain went on to be called Molly’s Knob and the stream Hungry Mother Creek. In the 1930s, the park was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the creek was dammed to form the lake. The name of hte park is wrapped in its own mystery. Originally to be called Forest Lake the name was changed to Southwest Virginia Lake and then to Hungry Mother State Park not long before the park opened. The debate over the legend and the park name continues to this day.”

There you have it!

Would we return to Hungry Mother State Park?

Absolutely, and it’s hard to imagine a prettier time to visit than the fall with all the colorful leaves, but spring is likely a pretty option, too!

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book stats:

320 pages, to be published on March 10, 2026 (available for pre-order now)

you may enjoy this book if you like:

Coming-of-Age Stories * Greek Novels * Multi-Cultural Novels

travel inspiration:

Both the UK and Cyprus are significant locations represented in the novel.

about the author: Alex kadis

Big Nobody is Alex Kadis’ first novel after a career in music journalism. Like the main character in the novel, Kadis is also half-British and half-Greek and was raised in London. If this inaugural effort is any indication of Kadis’ skill as a writer, I hope she has many more tales in her!

review of big nobody by alex kadis

Big Nobody follows Constance, a half-Greek, half-British adolescence during her coming-of-age era in the late 1970s.  We first meet Connie as she struggles to find a way to live with her father, who she blames for the death of her mother and brothers that has occurred in the recent past.  She has nicknamed her father The Fat Murderer and has a vivid interior life where she converses with David Bowie and Marc Bolan, whose posters dot her bedroom walls.  (I will confess that while I know David Bowie, I did not recognize Marc’s name.  Marc was lead of the 70s glam rock band T-Rex, whose most famous hit was ‘Ride a White Swan’.  Marc died at the age of 30 in 1977 in a car crash.  The date of that crash lines up with events in this novel.)

Not only is Connie struggling with the normal challenges of teenagerhood, further exacerbated by her loss, but she is also a first-generation immigrant who is sandwiched between the expectations of her Greek elders and her Greek peers, who want more than anything to be ‘normal’.  As a half-Greek child, Connie feels the extra sting of an outsider who doesn’t fully fit in with other outsiders.

Kadis’ writing beautifully captures Connie’s story – replete with strong imagery, blunt language at the right times, and humor – often sardonic – throughout.  Connie comes to life vividly, and her perception of her family and “Greek freak” community makes it easy for the reader to empathize with her plight and her goals.  And one of her goals is to kill her father. That may not typically be an easy way to get readers to empathize with a protagonist, but I was on Connie’s side all the way.

Connie has decided the appropriate punishment for her father, who she is utterly repulsed by, is for him to die.  She has endlessly creative daydreams about how she could kill him without any suspicion being thrust her way and in an amusing exchange with her science teacher, explores the likelihood of microbes on rotten pork causing serious enough illness to result in death.  When Connie determines murder options she thinks are worth attempting, she does.  She attempts poisoning through crushed up laburnum seeds, rotten pork, drywall nails stuck into her father’s car tires, and is never successful. 

As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Connie’s anger at her father is more than the misplaced grief of an overly-dramatic teenager.  There is a web of multi-generational abuse in the family, Connie’s father has failed to protect her or defend her, and his denial is what has indirectly led to the deaths of her family.  Without hitting the reader over the head with it, the novel tackles gender roles within this Greek community during the 1970s and demonstrates just how vulnerable Connie and other girls and women were to the unchecked behavior of boys and men.

Connie isn’t alone.  Vasos is a member of the Greek community and Connie’s companion during the ‘Greek freak’ get-togethers.  Like Connie, Vas is constrained by expectations of his Greek family and their view of male-ness.  Vas enjoys reading poetry, which leads his father to assume he is homosexual.  Ultimately, that assumption helps Connie and Vas have the space to develop a relationship that otherwise would have been more tightly controlled.  And the moment it becomes clear what they mean to each other is the moment everything falls apart and their families force their separation.  But before that, Vas is Connie’s savior. He sees her for who she is and loves her in a way that helps her value herself.

Big Nobody takes place over the course of four specific years.  The initial sections of the book occur in 1975, 1976, and 1977 and follow Connie’s teenage years.  We then pick back up twenty years later in 2007 when Connie is in her late 40s.

Without giving away this novel’s many twists and turns, the fourth part has some unexpected surprises in a way that provides both closure and a welcome symmetry. 

Connie is a survivor of circumstance, culture, and a rough childhood and takes a long road to recovery before she can finally accept that she is somebody and that matters. Throughout the entirety of this novel, I kept thinking of Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” and how nicely it parallels this novel. Because it is short, I’ll reproduce the poem here:

While Connie’s story is uniquely and compellingly hers, it is also representative of the journey everyone goes on to figure out who they are in this world.

I highly recommend Alex Kadis’ Big Nobody and hope she has more novels in store!

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Planning our Trip to Smith Mountain Lake State Park

HOW WE DETERMINED OUR DESTINATION: smith mountain lake state park

We live less than an hour from Smith Mountain Lake State Park (and less than that from parts of the lake itself) in Roanoke and have rented houses on the lake with family two times in the past. We’ve also been out to hike at the Smith Mountain Lake State Park on a couple of instances. Read about our hike on Walton Creek Trail here.

With the number of trails in the park, we figured that would be lots of 90 minute roundtrip drives to hike them all so that renting a cabin in the park would be a great way to check out all the park’s hikes over a few days. And with one exception - a trail that has been closed for some time - we have now hiked all the park’s trails. All of the trails are marked easy or moderate and this is much more low-key hiking than many of our other destinations, so it’s a great spot for those looking to stretch their legs without, say, scaling mountains.

where is smith mountain lake STATE PARK?

Smith Mountain Lake State Park is located in southwest-ish Virginia, about 40 minutes east of Roanoke, 2.5 hours southwest of Richmond, 3 hours north of Charlotte. The lake itself is a man-made reservoir of immense proportions. The shoreline measures 500 miles and the lake is 40 miles across. In fact, in 2023, Travel + Leisure magazine, called Smith Mountain Lake (SML to locals) the “Lake Tahoe of the East”. The shoreline is dotted with homes for both locals and vacationers and is a popular spot for people to rent houses.

Smith Mountain Lake State Park is on a northern portion of the lake and is over 1100 acres. The closest grocery stores are a little over 20 minutes away in Westlake Corner, but there are some closer convenience stores for basics. White House Corner Store is one such spot, located about 10 minutes from the park, and a place where we picked up some items while there.

WHERE WE STAYED: CABIN ACCOMMODATIONS IN smith mountain lake STATE PARK

There are 20 cabins and a campground at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. All 20 cabins are grouped together, though spaced for ample privacy. Some of the cabins are close to the lake with either lake access or some views so if you’re looking for one of those, be choosy in your cabin selection!

We stayed in cabin 11, one with a water view, and enjoyed that location. Our cabin was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom and perhaps a tad tiny, though functional, for 4 adults and 4 dogs. While other state parks offer larger cabins, most at SML are 2-bedrooms with only one 3-bedroom, which is ADA accessible.

Like other Virginia state park cabins, this one does not provide any linens. This means that visitors need to bring bedding, bath towels, and dish towels. The cabin is otherwise stocked with the basics in the kitchen - dinnerware, pots and pans, utensils, cooking implements. Because we planned to do some actual cooking, we brought our own skillet, which we were glad we did since theirs were a lot smaller than what we needed.

The kitchen has all the standard appliances but no dishwasher. Of all the cabins we’ve stayed in, only one has had a dishwasher and that was in Kentucky. Given that we don’t have one at home, this is not a big deal to us.

They layout of the cabin was such that the door opens right in to the kitchen and in-kitchen dining table. To the right is family room seating and a woodstove. That entire area is an open floor plan. Beyond the family room is a door out to the back deck. The deck was a great spot for hanging out and enjoying the spring weather. Straight back is a hallway with the two bedrooms and bathroom. One bedroom had a double bed and the other had two twins.

WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRIP TO smith mountain lake STATE PARK?

• Hiking Turtle Island trail, which offers great views of the lake and a short segment out onto a teeny island

• Seeing multiple Ospreys, including those nesting

• Visiting nearby-ish Smith Mountain Lake Dam and the nice visitor center with regional information. We posted a blog post entirely dedicated to that spot, which you can read about here. This was the one activity we did outside of the actual park.

• Enjoying many pleasant hikes through the woods with varying degrees of lake views

Hiking in Smith Mountain Lake State Park

trip overview

Smith Mountain Lake has 14 ‘named’ trails, some of which are short cut-over trails. The trails run from 0.1 miles to 3.1, with a total trail distance of just over 14 miles of hikes. This means that hiking the whole park in a few days is totally feasible, and it means that there are ample opportunities to combine multiple shorter paths to create longer loops, which is what we did.

The second longest trail in the park is the 3.0 mile Five Oaks Trail. When we headed over to hike it, we got a little ways down the path and came across caution tape and a note that the trail was closed. Upon inquiring at the visitor’s center, it turned out the path had been closed for quite a while (a few years even?). It was a tad frustrating that this information wasn’t more clearly highlighted on park signs, maps, or online and that you had to go a little bit down that trail before even learning of its closure.

In any case, that removed a sizeable distance from our list. Depending on how active you like to be, it’s reasonable to hike all the other trails in the park within 2-3 days in a way that is enjoyable. The loop trails we created means we back-tracked on portions of trails at times, but I’d always rather do that than an out-and-back.

Between visiting the Smith Mountain Lake Dam one afternoon and staying indoors due to rain another morning, we hiked all the trails over the course of 4 loop trails that we cobbled together.

Day 1: turtle island to opossum trot to beaver den trails and smith mountain lake dam

Having arrived the evening before, we were able to get settled in, enjoy dinner and relax on the porch before getting up in the morning ready to hike!

In the morning, we hiked a loop that was a little over 2 miles in total. The vast majority of this concocted loop trail was along the water and offered great lake views. Turtle Island is my favorite trail in the park and one I’d hiked a number of years ago with family during a Thanksgiving trip.

We started our trek by parking in the lot near the trailhead to Turtle Island Trail. Turtle Island Trail is a 1.4 mile loop and has a fun short bridge across to the small island called Turtle Island. Instead of connecting back to the parking lot and fully completing the loop trail for Turtle Island, we picked up Opossum Trot Trail (0.4 miles) that runs along the shore. Near the end of that trail, we got to check out an old tobacco barn along the road. From there, we hiked out to a spot near the Discovery Center (this wasn’t technically a trail but more of a picnic area) to check out an Osprey nest . Several Ospreys flew around and it was enjoyable to watch these large birds that aren’t typically so far inland in Virginia. From there, we caught the Beaver Den Trail (0.4 miles) that runs mostly along the road, and got back to our car.

After lunch, we drove over to the Smith Mountain Lake Dam. Even though it is only 25 miles away, the drive on rural roads took about 45 minutes. Most of the drive we were without cell service, so I recommend you have maps printed/saved as you may find them inaccessible like we did. For as long as we have lived in nearby Roanoke and technically knew that Smith Mountain Lake had a dam, we had no idea that it was a spot that you could visit and that had an interesting visitors center. The dam is truly off the beaten path but was easy to find with online directions.

Upon reaching the dam, visitors will first see an industrial/mechanical area with a large parking lot and it took a moment for us to realize that we could drive across the bridge in front of it and all the way up to be closer to the dam. At the top of the hill is a smaller parking lot, the visitor’s center, and an elevated walkway that goes up higher on the mountainside for fantastic views of the dam from both sides.

There was information on the building of the dam, including a portion of the train-like car that had been used to build it. Since we have a separate post entirely dedicated to the dam, I won’t repeat the information on it here, but please check that post out!

After our visit to the dam, we went in search of the Smith Mountain Lake Trail that I’d read about previously and offers aerial views of Smith Mountain Lake from atop Smith Mountain. This lead to us driving on more curvy country roads until we found the almost-miss-able trailhead and parking lot. By this point, it was late in the day, and visitors to the trail are required to get a permit, which could be purchased online. We decided it didn’t make sense to try to tackle the trail, but we now know where it is.

DAY 2: Chestnut Ridge to Buck run to beechwood trails

On our second morning, we woke up to pouring rain, which meant no hiking. Instead, we enjoyed a nice morning in the cabin with family. After lunch, we did a quick store run to White House Corner Store, the closest convenience store at about a 10-minute drive, to pick up a few items.

By early afternoon, the rain had moved on, providing an opening for an afternoon hike. We decided to combine three trails together for a longer hike of 4.3 miles comprised of: Chestnut Ridge (1.7m), Buck Run (1.7m), and Beechwood (0.9m). Because this would have us ending a mile or more away from our car, we coordinated with our co-hikers to take two cars and drop one off at our end spot to allow us a shuttle at the end. For others who do this hike without the ability to shuttle yourselves, assume you need to add another mile to the total hike distance.

Of the three trail sections, I enjoyed them all but would probably say that Chestnut Ridge was my favorite segment. Chestnut Ridge has two loops within it so while it’s mostly an out-and-back, it’s done in a way that you see a lot of new views along the route.  The trail goes out along a narrow, squirrelly peninsula with nearly continuous views of the water. It is a relatively flat trail with some undulating on small hills. 

Near the end/by the parking lot, we veered off to Buck Run Trail, which essentially skirts a deep cove, winding in and out along the shore, again with pretty views among the majority of it (though more tree hidden than the first trail).  This trail was also relatively flat.  It ends against Beechwood Trail, where you could turn left to the parking lot or – as we did, turn right to hike this final loop trail. 

Beechwood was the most hilly of the three, though not excessively so.  There were a few uphill/downhill sections and it was muddy from significant morning rain so the trail was quite slick in places.  This trail is mostly in the woods with a small section near the terminus of the cove.  This trail wasn’t labeled as well near the water, and it took a moment for us to confirm we were on the correct route, which crosses over some rocks near the shore.  There are several bridges and small waterfalls along this route.  So, while there were fewer water view opportunities, there were interesting features to make this hike enjoyable.

We wrapped up the day with relaxing porch time until the wind picked up and sent us indoors, where we enjoyed dinner and a fire in the woodstove.

DAY 3: CLYBURN RIDGE TRAIL

For our third and final day at Smith Mountain Lake State Park, we hiked a bit over 6 miles in total by creating two separate loop trails and concluded our goal of hiking all of the trails in the park during our visit (darn you, one closed trail that makes my statement feel like a lie!).

In the morning, we hiked a route we had previously done about a year prior and very much enjoyed. This approximately 3-mile loop starts at the visitor’s center parking lot, where you can pick up Walton Creek Trail (1.3m), connect to Osprey Point (0.4m), catch a portion of Striper Cove (a mile+), and then use the 0.2 mile connector trail of Turkey Foot (great name, folks!) back to the parking lot.

What I like about this route is that the first section on Walton Creek Trail offers beautiful shore and lake vistas while undulating through the small hills. Eventually you’ll come upon old stone walls that remind you that at one time this was all farmland and small towns before it was flooded to create the lake. What is now a hill over a lake was once a hill that swept down into a valley. The Striper Cove section has a totally different feel from anywhere else in the park, and there are informational signs about how they’re restoring that part of the woods. We wrote a separate post on this hike when we walked it before, so you can check out more details here.

In the afternoon, clouds had moved back in, but we decided to not let that stop us from tackling the final hiking trail: Striper Cove. In order to hike that route, we parked at the trailhead just up from the visitor’s center down Interpretative Road, hiked to the end, where we caught a section of Turtle Island, and then we walked back along the road to our car. Our travel companions didn’t accompany us on this hike so we weren’t able to leverage the same car shuttle option we had the prior day. We definitely got caught in a few short rain showers but nothing major. This hike was sort of similar to Buck Run in that it follows along the shoreline and coves, winding in and out with sections providing lake views and others entirely in the woods. I’d actually hiked this trail probably a decade ago with some friends but didn’t remember much of it after so long.

Would we return to Smith Mountain Lake State Park?

Yes - this is a great way to enjoy the lake while also getting some hiking in! The park has a lot of other amenities that we didn’t partake in but that make it popular among other visitors, including one or more beaches and swimming areas. There are multiple spots to enter the water in kayaks, canoes, or boats, playgrounds, picnic areas, and plenty of other activities in the nearby area (including wineries). If you’re looking for a more outdoorsy (and frankly, more affordable) way to visit Smith Mountain Lake, the state park is an excellent option!

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Related posts: Want to read more about Virginia? Check out all our Virginia posts here. Or, looking for more Roanoke-area hikes? Check out our Compendium of Hikes in and near Roanoke. For hiking gear recommendations, check out our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear. For this hike, I’d recommend hiking boots and a hydration backpack at a minimum.

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WHERE IS fallingwater cascades trail LOCATED?

Fallingwater Cascades is located about 50 minutes north of Roanoke, VA, in Bedford. It is a couple of miles north of the area known as Peaks of Otter and is located right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more information on the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which travels through Virginia and North Carolina, check out our post here.

To access Fallingwater Cascades Trail, visitors can park in a parking lot at the trailhead. Depending on the time of year, the parking lot may get crowded. The nearby Peaks of Otter trails are quite popular and have large parking lots. During our visit - a perfectly temperate and blue-skied Sunday morning in mid-October - we had no difficulty finding parking.

what else is there to do near fallingwater cascades trail?

Fallingwater Cascades is a couple of miles north of the area known as Peaks of Otter, which is home to the Peaks of Otter Lodge and Lake View Restaurant, a national park visitor’s center, picnic areas, campsites, and several hikes. The hikes at this spot include Sharp Top (read our post here), Flat Top, Harkening Hill and Johnson Farm Trails (two trails that we did together - read our post here), Abbott Lake (read our post here), and a few other nearby spots like Apple Orchard Falls (read our post here).

When in this area for hiking, we have typically brought a picnic to enjoy at the Peaks of Otter picnic area. There is a large wooded area along a creek that has a large amount of parking, picnic tables scatted throughout the woods and is - in our experience - barely used! The signs to the picnic area make it easy to find. If you’re driving up to the Sharp Top camp store, the road curves to the left with clear markings for the picnic area. On this particular visit, we decided to hike Fallingwater Cascades, followed by the Abbott Lake trail (1 mile in length, paved, around Abbott Lake), and then ate lunch at the Lake View Restaurant, where we had window seats overlooking the lake and peak beyond.

fallingwater cascades trail’s BEST KEPT SECRETS

There are two access points to Fallingwater Cascades. One is the main trailhead with the parking lot. When accessing the trail this way, you’ll immediately head downhill and get to the water fairly quickly. From there, you’ll follow the cascades down to the bottom of the trail. At that point, you can cross the water and head uphill, away from the water, to a secondary access point. If you’re there for the cascades, I’d recommend doing a down-and-back hike, turning around at the base of the cascades.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN HIKING AT fallingwater cascades

Fallingwater Cascades is entirely a downhill followed by uphill hike, meaning that some people may find it difficult or strenuous. There are lengthy sections of stairs hewn into the path. The trail is fairly short: it’s half a mile down and half a mile back up with an elevation change of about 365 feet. The total hike took us just 40 minutes, including stops to take in the scenery and enjoy the waterfall views, but we should note that we’re pretty active people so if that description doesn’t fit you, leave additional time for the hike.

We would definitely recommend hiking boots. Between the significant number of stairs, rocky sections, and some tree roots, sturdy shoes are important for comfort and safety. If you’re at all inclined towards twisting your ankle like I am, hiking boots that cover your ankles are a must-have! Hiking sticks would be helpful to those wanting extra stability. The trail itself has no blazing, nor does it need it.

fallingwater cascades trail - ACCESSIBILITY

Fallingwater Cascades Trail is strenuous and not friendly to those with mobility challenges.

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Related posts: Want to read more about Virginia? Check out all our Virginia posts here. Or, looking for more Roanoke-area hikes? Check out our Compendium of Hikes in and near Roanoke. For hiking gear recommendations, check out our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear. For this hike, I’d recommend hiking boots and a hydration backpack at a minimum.

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WHERE IS abbott lake trail LOCATED?

Abbott Lake Trail is located about 50 minutes north of Roanoke, VA, in Bedford in the heart of the area known as Peaks of Otter, and is located right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more information on the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which travels through Virginia and North Carolina, check out our post here.

To access Abbott Lake Trail, visitors can park in a parking lot at the Peaks of Otter Lodge and Lake View Restaurant. Depending on the time of year, the parking lot may get crowded, but there is a lot of parking so visitors should be able to find a spot. Nearby are some large parking lots at and across from the Visitor’s Center to provide additional parking options. This area is particularly popular during peak leaf season in the fall, which normally falls between mid- to late-October in the area.

what else is there to do near abbott lake trail?

Abbott Lake is situated at the base of Peaks of Otter and has numerous hikes nearby. Peaks of Otter is home to the Peaks of Otter Lodge and Lake View Restaurant, a national park visitor’s center, picnic areas, campsites, and several hikes. The hikes at this spot include Sharp Top, Flat Top, Harkening Hill and Johnson Farm Trails (two trails that we did together - read our post here), Fallingwater Cascades, and a few other nearby spots like Apple Orchard Falls (read our post here).

When in this area for hiking, we have typically brought a picnic to enjoy at the Peaks of Otter picnic area. There is a large wooded area along a creek that has a large amount of parking, picnic tables scatted throughout the woods and is - in our experience - barely used! The signs to the picnic area make it easy to find. If you’re driving up to the Sharp Top camp store, the road curves to the left with clear markings for the picnic area. On this particular visit, we decided to hike Fallingwater Cascades (1 mile total, half downhill and half uphill), followed by the Abbott Lake trail (1 mile in length, paved, around Abbott Lake), and then ate lunch at the Lake View Restaurant, where we had window seats overlooking the lake and peak beyond.

abbott lake trail’s BEST KEPT SECRETS

Abbott Lake Trail is a 1-mile, paved trail around the shores of the man-made lake. There are numerous great photo backdrops along the way. In fact during our visit we spotted professional photographers with several clients and the set-up for a wedding right outside the lodge for later that same day. This is a great hike for people who need easy walks and/or those with mobility issues and provides striking views, particularly in the fall. Or, it can be a great add-on walk for those doing more strenuous hikes in the Peaks of Otter area. The trail took us just over 20 minutes at a casual pace.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN HIKING AT abbott lake

The surface of Abbott Lake Trail is a combination of asphalt and a boardwalk. There are a couple of short bridges and a lookout point along the way. The trail is wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, and the trail gets relatively busy during peak leaf season. Because of the length of the trail and how accessible it is, a lot of people bring their dogs. It’s also common to fish and picnic along the shores of the lake.

abbott lake trail - ACCESSIBILITY

Abbott Lake Trail is friendly for those with mobility challenges and would likely be usable for those in wheelchairs.

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book stats:

335 pages, published November 2024 (I read as an advanced reading copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review)

you may enjoy this book if you like:

Novels set in Iceland * Literary Fiction * Novels of Self-Discovery

travel inspiration:

After a short stint in San Francisco, California, and Reykjavik, Iceland, the majority of this novel is set in the remote Westfjords in Iceland. The Westfjords are some of the most isolated parts of a country not known for its bustling population. Case in point: fewer than 2% of the Icelandic population lives in the Westfjords.

Dustin and I visited Iceland in 2018 and spent ten days road tripping around the Ring Road. We fell in love with the country and promptly planned a return trip for the summer of 2020 to spend two weeks touring the Westfjords. Alas, our trip was thwarted by Covid and remains on hold since we are in an era of parenting our elderly dogs. So, reading this novel set in the Westfjords helped both fill the Icelandic void in our lives and left me hankering for a return trip.

about the author: S.S. Turner

The Last Toll Collector is S.S. Turner’s fourth novel, following on the heels of Secrets of a River Swimmer (2022), The Connection Game (2023), and Golden (2024). Turner has lived in London and Edinburgh and currently resides in Australia with his wife, children, and a menagerie of pets.

review of the last toll collector by s.s. Turner

Before her epic Icelandic journey begins, Valerie Tobruk is first a toll collector, a job that is often hidden in plain sight. While Valerie enjoys her short interactions with her customers and even forms relationships with her regulars, most just pass right through her booth and pay her no time of day. In this way, Valerie is both deeply part of the world and tucked away from it, a dichotomy that seems a perfect fit for her personality.

The modern world of automation eventually catches up with Valerie. Her job disappears, leaving her rudderless for a decade. She applies to various jobs but is unsuccessful. This finally comes to a head when a masochistic interviewer pits her against a robot. The job will be hers if she can out-perform the robot, which of course she cannot. Amidst this turmoil, one of Valerie’s former toll booth customers recommends she abscond to Iceland.

Thus begins the hero’s journey.

Valerie is an archetype for all of us. At the core of humanity, people want to both be valued by others and, in turn, provide value to society. With the loss of her employment, Valerie finds herself at a crossroad, unsure of where she fits. She doesn’t feel that others value her the way they once did, and she isn’t able to provide value to society through her work. Once in Iceland, Valerie heads to the isolated Westfjords in an attempt to find herself in its isolation. She finds herself at a historic, neglected herring factory. Based on my own travel plans to the area, I believe this setting is likely based on the real-life abandoned herring factory in Ingólfsfjörður (learn more about it here).

Without specific plans or much money, Valerie starts off camping out like a factory stowaway, hiding from tourists that stop at the site. In no time, she gravitates to what she knows. Valerie hangs up her shingle as a fee collector at the herring factory. It doesn’t occur to the initial visitors that anything is abnormal but locals quickly begin questioning why Valerie is collecting fees for tourists to enter a site that she doesn’t own and that used to be free. Soon, newspapers in Reykjavik are hawking the story of the woman who is squatting in the herring factory, which leads curiosity seekers to Valerie’s door. Valerie is going through the machinations of being valued (at least people are paying attention to her) and providing value to others (she begins sharing historic facts about the factory after picking them up from a tour guide). But she is behaving in a way that is outside of regular society and so she is constantly questioned by everyone. Confronted by this potential rejection, Valerie doubles down and declares herself a sovereign nation! In that one act, Valerie is reasserting her value and place in the world, albeit it in an unusual way.

This does not make her any less of a curiosity to gaping tourists but does set her down an unexpected path. She quickly establishes her nation as anti-ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI) and begins collecting all sorts of unique characters, who decide to join her in nation-building. Valerie’s eponymous nation goes through a fast-paced evolution of civilization - from building works to industry to militarism and warfare to, eventually, the development of currency, which quickly progresses to late-stage capitalism.

In the midst of this budding micro-empire, the citizens of Tobruk end up in a short-lived battle against the Icelandic authorities. Upon retreat of their enemy, the population waits for the next battle, which surprisingly never comes. But what does show up at the border is a series of off-shore drones and a unit of robots that are situated along the cliff that overlooks the settlement. For a nation founded on an anti-AI stance, these are poetic threats. The citizens aren’t sure what to make of these surprising developments and decide the drones and robots are pawns of the Icelandic authorities. Eventually, they reconsider what has brought the drones and robots to their border because neither is acting as if they are controlled by the government. Over time, the Tobrukians begin to consider that the AI are independent gods, who require worship.

It is at this moment that Valerie’s entire conflict comes to a head. Over the rapid rise and evolution of her nation, she has been usurped by several citizens and has faded from the country’s respected founder and leader into the background as a non-entity. But at the moment that matters, Valerie steps forward to confront the AI threats directly and finds herself confronting her own personal demons that stem back to her childhood with a father who saw no value in her as a person.

A combination of Lord of the Flies meets Life of PI meets the Simpson’s episode where Lisa creates an entire civilization in a petri dish, this is a riveting, modern take on the classic hero’s journey, first described by Joseph Conrad.

Valerie is an archetype for all of humanity, which sits on its own precipice of uncertainty. AI is progressing with the fits and starts that are a prelude to leaps in technology that will transform our existence in a way that we cannot fathom. All of us are - to some degree or other - unsure whether we will be needed and whether our unique contributions as individuals will even matter.

The Last Toll Collector is focused on our latest threat: AI. But AI is only the next in a long list of new technologies and changes to the human experience that echo back in time. This novel captures a quintessential worry of all humans during all times in history. We should not despair. The Last Toll Collector has a hopeful message for us all. Each of us has the power within ourselves to solve this. We must each take our own hero’s journey to emerge victorious.

This novel is riveting, smart, and thought-provoking and was a true page-turner, as I was curious to see where it would take me next! This was the first novel I read by the author, and I look forward to seeing what else he has in store!

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Related posts: Want to read more about Virginia? Check out all our Virginia posts here. Or, looking for more Roanoke-area hikes? Check out our Compendium of Hikes in and near Roanoke. For hiking gear recommendations, check out our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear. For this hike, I’d recommend hiking boots and a hydration backpack at a minimum.

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WHERE IS sharp top mountain trail LOCATED?

Sharp Top Mountain is located about 50 minutes north of Roanoke, VA, in Bedford. It is part of the area known as Peaks of Otter and is located right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more information on the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which travels through Virginia and North Carolina, check out our post here.

To access Sharp Top Mountain Trail, visitors can park at the visitor’s center and walk across the Blue Ridge Parkway to catch the trail near a camp store; or, there is a small parking lot near the camp store. During our visit, we parked in the visitor’s center parking lot and so added about 0.3 miles to our total hike by doing so.

Sharp Top Mountain is the most popular hike in the area and while it was certainly well traveled during our visit - a Sunday in the summer - we had no difficulty finding parking with multiple parking lot options.

what else is there to do near sharp top mountain trail?

Sharp Top is part of the area known as Peaks of Otter, which is home to the Peaks of Otter Lodge and Lake View Restaurant, a national park visitor’s center, picnic areas, campsites, and several hikes. The hikes at this spot include Sharp Top, which is the trail we’ll describe in this post, as well as Flat Top, Harkening Hill and Johnson Farm Trails (two trails that we did together - read our post here), Abbott Lake, and a few other nearby spots like Fallingwater Cascades and Apple Orchard Falls (read our post here).

The picnic area deserves an honorable mention. There is a large wooded area along a creek that has a large amount of parking, picnic tables scatted throughout the woods and is - in our experience - barely used! Every time we hike in the area, we bring a picnic lunch to enjoy after our hike. The signs to the picnic area make it easy to find. If you’re driving up to the Sharp Top camp store, the road curves to the left with clear markings for the picnic area.

sharp top mountain trail’s BEST KEPT SECRETS

There is a bus/shuttle option! While we love hiking and wouldn’t have it any other way, we know others may prefer not to hike or have mobility limitations. For the last few years, the park has been offering a bus that gets near the top. While we have not taken it ourselves and so have no experience, this is a good option for others. The bus offers people the option to take the bus both directions or to only take it one-way to be able to hike the downhill portion. You can find more information on the current price and schedules here. It’s important to note that while the bus gets visitors much closer to the top, there is still a shorter uphill hike from the bus stop.

With an elevation of 3,875 (which isn’t high for everywhere but is for Virginia!), Sharp Top Mountain rises above most mountains in the area and provides 360 degree views from the top. Nearby Flat Top Mountain, is about 26 feet taller but without sweeping views.

The trail is a straightforward up and down with one loop off called Buzzards Roost. During our visit, none of the other hikers seemed to be heading over to Buzzards Roost, and we’d recommended this short addition. It has beautiful views itself and provides some cool views of the top of Sharp Top. While the park materials say to add 30 minutes onto your hike for this short loop, it only added about 8 minutes to our time, including enjoying the views at the top.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN HIKING AT sharp top mountain

Sharp Top Mountain Trail is labelled - appropriately - as strenuous. The trail does flatten out a little bit at points along the way but it is a steep upward climb, gaining over 1300 feet in elevation in 1.5 miles. Large segments are basically carved rock stairs. One way to think about this in a different scale: this is basically like climbing 130 flights of stairs over a 1.5 mile distance.

The top of the mountain hosts a series of additional staircases and various viewing spots, almost as if there was a small fortification built at the top, which was unexpected and cool.

What goes up must come down! Remember that as much energy as up-hill hiking takes, downhill hiking can be surprisingly taxing on the body, especially knees! The full hike is about 3 miles round-trip. The park website recommends visitors allow 2 hours to climb up, 30 minutes in additional time for those checking out the loop to Buzzards Roost, and 1 hour to climb down. We parked at the slightly further parking lot and did the entire hike (up, Buzzards Roost, and down) in about 1 hour 50 minutes. We are in above average shape and experienced hikers.

We would definitely recommend hiking boots. Between the significant number of stairs, rocky sections, and some tree roots, sturdy shoes are important for comfort and safety. If you’re at all inclined towards twisting your ankle like I am, hiking boots that cover your ankles are a must-have! Hiking sticks would be helpful to those wanting extra stability. Some sections of the stairs require good balance and agility. You absolutely should bring water, which is a must on a hike of any length in our book, and we always hike with a couple of Kind bars in case we need to re-energize.

The trail itself has no blazing, nor does it need it. For the most part, the trail is wide enough for 2-3 people to walk side-by-side, and it is really clear where the trail goes. Until the very top, the trail winds through the woods with little to no view (at least in the summer).

Sharp Top Mountain Trail is popular at sunrise and sunset due to its views and is also popular in the fall to see the beautiful autumn colors in the surrounding mountains. Because of the higher elevation, even in the summer, the hike is cooler than the surrounding areas. The day we went was supposed to get up to 90 degrees by noon, but the morning hike was not too hot. While there are sections without tree cover, most of the trail has trees overhead so it is not a trail with the sun beating down on the hikers, which helps prevent overheating.

sharp top mountain trail - ACCESSIBILITY

Sharp Top Mountain Trail is strenuous and not friendly to those with mobility challenges.

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This is the fifth post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

Planning our Trip to Watoga State Park

how we determined our destination: watoga state park

A couple of years ago we visited Watoga State Park for the first time. Coming of off no travel for 18 months due to the start of Covid, this was also our first foray into staying at a state park. We had a great trip and have since visited a multitude of state parks across the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. What we didn’t do much of during that first trip to Watoga is spend time exploring the hiking within the park itself. Instead, we mostly explored the broader Pocahontas County region, which has a lot on offer! You can read about our prior stay in Watoga here.

We loved the area, knew it was likely to be a bit cooler than our home state of Virginia in the hot summer months, and decided to return to actually explore more of the park itself, not to mention getting some more biking miles in on the Greenbrier River Trail, accessible just outside of the park boundary.

where we stayed: cabin accommodations in watoga state park

During our first visit two years prior, we opted to stay in one of the “legacy cabins,” a cabin built by the CCC.  Twenty-four cabins in the park are legacy cabins.  Another 10, including 2 which are ADA accessible, are more modern “classic cabins”.  While we enjoyed the older cabin, it was a bit drafty and small.  This trip, we opted for a newer cabin, which is very much on par with many state cabins we have experienced elsewhere.  We rented a two bedroom, one bath. 

The front door opens into a small, cozy family room with a sofa and two chairs around a fireplace.  Just beyond is a 4-person dining room table that is situated next to the small but functional kitchen (oven, stove, microwave, fridge, toaster).   Straight ahead from the front door is the bathroom and to the left are two bedrooms, one with a queen-sized bed, the other with two twins.  The winning feature of this cabin (#9) is a large front porch.  There are also two grassy/mossy yards on either side, one of which has a picnic table and firepit.  The porch itself has a camp-style grill, Adirondack chairs for relaxing, and a small outdoor table and chair set.

Watoga also provides a bundle of firewood for each night, so we were provided an ample supply for our five night stay, though we didn’t end up using any of it this trip.  The cabin sits along the main (but quiet) road through the park and backs up to a fairly steep incline.  One thing we remembered from our prior stay is that this group of cabins in Island Lick Cabin Area are at a lower part of the park and are nestled into a bit of a hollow.  This means that sunrise comes a little late and sunset a little early with the mountains blocking the light.  We also know that there are some amazing spots higher up to enjoy both sunset and starry nights in this park.

where we ate: dining options near watoga state park

The park itself offers no food options. Most individuals staying in the park (camping or in cabins) bring coolers of their own food, but there are some nearby options that are worth noting.

• Jack Horner’s Corner - This shop in Seebert is a couple of minutes from the park. This place is a one-stop-shop and offers dining, basic groceries, souvenirs, soft serve ice cream, bike repair/replacement parts, and bike, kayak, and innertube rentals for Greenbrier River, on whose shores it sits. The restaurant options include sandwiches, pizza, and barbecue. There is no dining room but there are seats on their porch overlooking the river. We grabbed club sandwiches there one night. For convenience and solid food, this place is a great spot to know about!

• Hillsboro Public House - Opened in 2023, this is the closest traditional restaurant to Watoga State Park. The pub has relatively limited hours and is opened for lunch and dinner Thursday through Saturday only. They also offer live, local bands on occasion and update this information on their Facebook site. We planned to eat there during our last night, which happened to be 4th of July. Although it was a Thursday, they were closed for the holiday.

• The town of Marlinton - this town, which is 30 minutes away from Watoga is the best destination for those looking for additional restaurant options. Many places have limited hours/days of operation so you’ll want to familiarize yourself with that information. We ate at two spots during our trip:

  • Rivertown Cafe - located in an old hardware store that literally still has really cool shelves and features from that time period, this spot offers a handful of casual cafe-style fare. They update their menu on a sandwich board in the restaurant. They also offer various coffee beverages, Italian sodas, and a small selection of bakery items. This spot also hosts bands on occasion and updates that information on Facebook. During our lunch visit, we both had chicken salad sandwiches, which were tasty. As a side, they come with seasoned popcorn, a fun variation. We ordered cappuccinos and split an interesting cookie concoction: chocolate chip with melted marshmallows on top. All of it was great!

  • Greenbrier Grille & Lodge - located right along the Greenbrier River near the bridge that enters Marlinton, this is the spot that appears to have the most expansive hours in the area. It’s open 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We ended up having dinner here our last night after discovering Hillsboro Public House was closed for the holiday. We got nice patio seats with views of ducks and geese on the river. The service was very slow, and based on reviews online, this is fairly common. As long as diners go in with that awareness and are prepared to wait, I’d recommend it. We split an appetizer of mozzarella sticks, I tried a local lager, and for entrees Dustin had a Philly cheesesteak with onion rings, and I had a black and bleu (blue cheese) burger. It was all tasty.

what were the highlights of our trip to watoga state park

The highlights of our trip were:

• The view of the surrounding mountains and Greenbrier River from the Monongaseneka Trail, which we combined with several other trails to make a 5.5 mile loop.

• Watching the sunset over the mountains at the parking lot near the Ann Bailey trailhead. This is also a wonderful place to watch the dark sky of this designated International Dark Sky Park.

• Biking a new segment of the Greenbrier River Trail, which was absolutely beautiful, and extra cool to bike through the 400+-foot long former train tunnel in Droop Mountain.

• Hiking the Honey Bee Trail (4.5 miles) at Brooks Arboretum within the park.

• Being pretty much off grid: no cell or internet access at the cabins or throughout most of the area.

• Hiking the Falls at Hills Creek, which was a wonderful hike (1.5 miles roundtrip) with beautiful waterfall views.

• Checking out the cute town of Marlinton and enjoying meals at a couple of restaurants: Rivertown Cafe and Greenbrier Grille and Lodge.

Would we return to Watoga State Park?

Something about this area speaks to me. The park is a relaxing, calm place to stay, and there are many drop-dead gorgeous country drives nearby, not to mention endless hikes within and outside of the park. Having visited twice, I’m not sure that we will return again any time soon, but I would happily do so!

Trip Do-Over: What would we do differently?

Four days was a great amount of time for this trip and allowed us to do a variety of things. We probably should have had a better back-up plan for the day it rained since we could have seen more in the morning instead of just hanging out in the cabin, but that was also fun, too. For visitors looking to explore the park and the surrounding areas (a combination of what we did on this trip and our last one), you could easily spend a week or more.

Our Driving Route: Roanoke to Watoga

This is the route we took from our home of Roanoke, VA, to the park. On the route there, we went through Clifton Forge. On the return trip, we went through Lewisburg and then the loop on Roaring Run Road.

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]]>Trip Overview - 4 Days at Watoga State Park in West VirginiaAdventures in TravelWest VirginiaSeries: WatogaLindseySun, 29 Sep 2024 21:23:36 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/watoga45b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:668997a1311ab759c481a194

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On our fourth (and final) full day at Watoga State Park, we were confronted with spotty rain and the threat of thunderstorms. So, we ruled out a morning hike and an afternoon bike ride on the Greenbrier River Trail and instead came up with a new itinerary. We hung out in our cabin in the morning reading, headed north 30 minutes to the town of Marlinton for lunch, visited the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center, crammed in a 1.5 mile roundtrip hike to a beautiful series of waterfalls, before returning to Marlinton for dinner right on the Greenbrier River. Not a bad day at all for one that was entirely different than our original plans! Check out the map at the bottom for the driving route for the day’s activities.

If you just want to skip to our adventure, scroll on; if you’re looking for some packing tips, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Light-weight raincoat - if there's a chance of rain, you won't regret bringing a lightweight waterproof jacket with you. My favorite is this GORE-TEX jacket, and it has seen many damp trails!

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Hydration backpack - unless you are going for a very short hike, bringing water is a must. Dustin has a very old Camelbak circa 2000, and I have a new-ish one from Gregory that I have used on multiple hiking trips and love. While the Gregory Sula 16 is not currently available, here are some other options. We each have a 3-liter water bladder.

Day 4: Lunch at Rivertown Cafe in Marlinton, a Visit to the Cranberry Mountain Visitors Center, hiking Falls of Hills Creek, and Dinner at Greenbrier Grille and Lodge in Marlinton

Lunch at rivertown cafe in marlinton

With rain in the forecast for the morning and thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon, our original plans for a morning hike and afternoon bike on the Greenbrier River Trail were off the table.  So, we came up with alternative activities.  We had a slow morning in the cabin, hanging out and reading aloud before driving up to the town of Marlinton for lunch. 

Marlinton is about 30 minutes north of Watoga, an easy drive on pretty (and very curvy) country roads.  The town has a handful of restaurants and so is the best bet for dining in the area.  We selected Rivertown Café for a light lunch.  The café is in an old hardware store and has maintained much of the allure of the original store: shelves and containers along the walls left over from its prior days.  The café serves breakfast, lunch, and (early) dinner and has a stage for music performances that appear to be held perhaps 1-2 times per month at least in the summer months. 

The café doesn’t list a menu online but does have it written on sandwich boards in the restaurant, indicating it probably varies.  We both opted to order a chicken salad sandwich and instead of chips or fries, their side is seasoned popcorn, which is fun.  There are also a number of coffee beverage options and other drinks like Italian sodas.  There is a small selection of bakery items available, too.  After our chicken sandwiches, which we enjoyed, we got a cookie to share (chocolate chip with marshmallows melted on top), and cappuccinos.  All was delicious, and we enjoyed the café’s vibe.  Along one wall is a large supply of books and some board games and puzzles and the casual seating includes a sofa area where some other guests decided to play games.  Upstairs is a separate art gallery/art studio, which we didn’t check out.

visiting cranberry mountain nature center

After lunch, we decided to drive (about 20 minutes south) to the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center.  During our prior visit to the area two years ago, we had enjoyed some hikes in the Cranberry Mountain area but never checked out the center at its entrance.  With rain in the area, this was a good indoor activity.

We spent a short time checking out the exhibits in the nature center.  It had some information on the local flora and fauna and a number of kid-friendly activities as well as a small gift shop and books on the local area.  There were also several tanks with local snakes, including the two poisonous ones in the area – Copperheads and Rattlesnakes. Since the first tank we came across also holds a fake snake, it took me a while to realize the other snakes were entirely real. Honestly, if Dustin hadn’t noticed, I’m not sure I would have.  We also enjoyed checking out maps of the area and realized that there was a waterfall hike nearby that looked worth doing while we were enjoying a gap in the rain.

Outside the nature center is a short (approx. 3/5 of a mile) nature trail with placards describing trees common to the area and their common uses. 

hiking the falls of hills creek

We drove a few miles along the Highland Scenic Highway to access the Falls of Hills Creek, a 0.75 mile (1.5 mile roundtrip) hike along Hills Creek with three separate waterfalls along the way.  Much of the hike is on a boardwalk, and there are nearly 400 steps.  Because the area is densely covered with trees, the boardwalk is very shaded and a bit slick so visitors should be careful.  Dustin took a slight spill on a staircase, and we watched another visitor go down, too.

The Falls of Hills Creek hike was beautiful.  It mostly followed the creek and had gorgeous views of all three sections of the falls.  In two segments, there were significant staircases that included probably 5-6 flights of stairs all at once – similar to what you’d find in a parking garage.  The full roundtrip took just under an hour with plenty of stops to enjoy and photograph the scenery.

Just before we got back to the car, a thunderstorm moved in and we started getting a few raindrops.  By the time we were in the car, we had a steady rain, so we had lucked out!  While we didn’t have time to drive further on the Highland Scenic Highway, we had explored the northern half of it during our prior trip and really enjoyed it so will have to put a pin in driving the southern section of it another time.

dinner at greenbrier grille and lodge in marlinton

We returned home briefly to feed and walk the pups and then headed over to Hillsboro for dinner.  Hillsboro is the closest town to Watoga with a restaurant.  Hillsboro Public House opened in 2023, has good reviews, occasional bands, and is only 15 minutes away.  Upon driving over there, we discovered it was closed for the 4th of July so we drove back to Marlinton for dinner at the Greenbrier Grille and Lodge, situated right on the Greenbrier River.  This casual breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot and lodge has deck seating overlooking the water.  We were lucky to find a seat outside.

From the deck, we could watch cars traveling over the bridge into Marlinton and observe the Mallard ducks and Canada geese meandering around in the shallows.  The service at the restaurant was really pretty slow.  Our drinks took a bit - 10-15 minutes maybe? - (a beer on draught and a root beer), and our appetizer (mozzarella sticks) didn’t arrive for about 45 minutes.  It was probably a full hour before our entrees came out (black and bleu burger and philly cheesesteak with onion rings).  We weren’t in a rush but a few other diners were visibly frustrated.  From reviews we’d seen online, this is not an uncommon issue.  Dustin enjoyed his philly cheesesteak sandwich (it was literally two sandwiches), and the onion rings were good.  The burger was solid, and I was pleasantly surprised by the real blue cheese on it.  We had a beautiful evening – nice temperatures and just a bit of humidity – with low clouds visible in the distance after the afternoon rain.

One nice advantage of being in Marlinton is that it is the one place with regular speed internet we’ve found nearby and so we were able to spend a little time catching up on all things internet.  We used the time to plot a new route home the following day through Lewisburg, WV, a spot I’ve been curious to check out for a while and was essentially equidistant the route we would otherwise have taken. We fell in love with Lewisburg, though we were only able to drive around (dogs in the car and all) and made a mental note to add it to the list for a return trip.

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Our route for day 4 - the two hours of driving is the culmination of all the legs of the trip:

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]]>Watoga State Park, WV - Day 4Adventures in TravelWest VirginiaSeries: WatogaLindseySun, 04 Aug 2024 21:44:47 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/watoga35b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:66898ef32215eb723402297a

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This is the third post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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On our third full day at Watoga State Park, we hiked Ann Bailey Trail (6 miles roundtrip) out to a fire tower and a loop trail that combined Busch Settlement Trail, North Boundary Trail, Buck & Doe Trail, and Bear Pen Trail (3 miles total). We ended the day by grabbing soft serve ice cream cones from nearby Jack Horner’s Corner.

If you just want to skip to our adventure, scroll on; if you’re looking for some packing tips, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Light-weight raincoat - if there's a chance of rain, you won't regret bringing a lightweight waterproof jacket with you. My favorite is this GORE-TEX jacket, and it has seen many damp trails!

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Hydration backpack - unless you are going for a very short hike, bringing water is a must. Dustin has a very old Camelbak circa 2000, and I have a new-ish one from Gregory that I have used on multiple hiking trips and love. While the Gregory Sula 16 is not currently available, here are some other options. We each have a 3-liter water bladder.

• Headlight style flashlight - A headlight, like this one from REI that we each use, was handy for our bike ride through a dark tunnel since our bikes don’t have lights on them.

Day 3: Hiking Ann Bailey Trail and a loop of Busch Settlement, North Boundary, Buck and Doe, and Bear Pen Trails at Watoga State Park

Hiking ann bailey trail

Our morning destination: Ann Bailey Trail, a 3-mile out-and-back (6 mile total) trail near the higher elevations of the park.  The Ann Bailey Trailhead is right near the most scenic (car-accessible) part of the park.  When we visited two years prior, we spent several evenings up at this look-out point watching the sunset and the moon and stars shine overhead. 

Just past the car accessible area is the trailhead itself, along with a placard explaining a little bit about Ann Bailey.  Born in England in 1742, she made her way to Staunton, Virginia, by 1761.  Her husband was killed in 1774 at the Battle of Point Pleasant, after which Ann took up arms to avenge her husband, who had died fighting the Shawnee. She joined the militia and served as a messenger and scout. She later remarried and was stationed at Fort Lee with her second husband. It was from that spot that she reportedly made a 200-mile journey for gunpowder that saved the day in protecting the fort and settlement. Long after her second husband was murdered, Ann Bailey died in her sleep in 1825. For more on the story of this early frontierswoman, check out this site. (Note that many websites spell her name ‘Anne’ but it is spelled ‘Ann’ within Watoga, so I’m intentionally using that spelling.)

The Ann Bailey Trail is entirely a fire road that meanders for 3 miles up and down a wide ridge.  The trail is not particularly interesting – mostly the same forest on either sides of the wide path – but still makes for a nice walk.  Because of the appeal of the fire tower at the end of the trail, this appears to be a more popular path.  We saw two other groups during our hike, which was the most we saw anywhere during our visit.  And we saw a black bear scampering by in the forest.

Nearby on another trail (Jessie’s Cove) is the Workman cabin, named for the pioneer family that lived in it.  On the Ann Bailey Trail, we came to the Workman family cemetery, which houses 10 members of that family.  In recent years, their descendants have worked to repair the cabin and cemetery.  There are four graves that are clearly very new with identical headstones, and the other 6 family members have unmarked graves.

A short ways on, hikers will be rewarded by coming to the end of the trail. The views from the fire tower are beautiful and worth the three mile hike.  The fire tower itself is similar to another fire tower we’ve visited in the region at Droop Mountain Battlefield.  It is a loosely constructed log cabin style with spaces between the logs, and it is two stories tall.  There were lots of carvings of initials and names in it, some very recent, others from the 70s or 80s, and a few going back as far as the 40s.  I’m always dubious whether people put accurate dates but there were a number from that period that did look older so, maybe? The tower itself was built in the 1930s so that makes it possible.

hiking a loop trail: busch settlement to north boundary to buck and doe to bear pen trails

In the afternoon, we decided to hike a 3-mile loop trail that combined Busch Settlement Trail, North Boundary Trail, Buck and Doe Trail, and Bear Pen Trail.  Our original route plan had been a bit different and would have had us starting at the Bear Pen Trail’s access point off the main road; however, when coming back on the Bear Pen Trail the prior day, we noticed a bunch of downed trees fully blocking the original access point we were going to take.  So, we pivoted. 

Busch Settlement Trail is on the park map, but where they list each trail, their length, and notable features, it is not listed.  I’m not sure why.  In any case, it took us a minute to locate the trailhead.  We took the Busch Settlement Picnic Area turnoff from the main park road and drove around in there a bit before finding the trail. 

In hopes of making it easier for others: To find the trailhead after turning into the picnic area, pass the playground (on your left) and then take a left on the long straight road that ends in a gate with a building beyond it.  Just in front of that building is a pedestrian entry point and to the left, a tad uphill, is a sign for Bear Pen Trail, which will go a short ways until it meets up with Busch Settlement Trail. 

I’m not going to lie: this trail is over a mile pretty much uphill.  The uphill is only about 360 feet in elevation, but you’ll notice it.  Like other trails, this one hasn’t been maintained very well.  There were a number of downed trees and overgrown segments, but none of it was a problem: we could step over the trees easily enough and the overgrown areas were always easy to maneuver while staying on the path. 

At the top of the path, we met up with the North Boundary Trail, which we took for half a mile.  While this is a different segment than what we’d been on the day prior, it is still a fire road and so an easier, wider path, though rutted and a little muddy in spots.  After that, we met up with the Buck and Doe Trail, which is ¾ of a mile in length and headed us back downhill at a faster pace than we’d climbed up.  At the bottom, we took a left on the Bear Pen Trail that led us back to the car.  While a reasonable hiking route, this was probably my least favorite hike in the park in terms of prettiness and interesting views.

After 9 miles of hiking throughout the day, we were ready for a relaxing evening off our feet. The prior night when we grabbed a quick bite to eat from Jack Horner’s Corner, we noticed a lot of people stopping in for their soft serve ice cream.  So, after eating dinner, we headed over there to enjoy dessert.  They have fairly limited options but good ones nonetheless: vanilla, chocolate, or a swirl of both.  We each got both chocolate and vanilla in a waffle cone and took it to go.  Dustin impressively ensured his ice cream didn’t melt while driving up to the parking lot near the Ann Bailey Trailhead (I, on the other hand, went through all the napkins trying to manage my cone) where we finished our cones and watched the sun set over the layers of mountains.

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]]>Watoga State Park, WV - Day 3Adventures in TravelWest VirginiaSeries: WatogaLindseySun, 21 Jul 2024 23:43:56 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/watoga25b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:668966efafa9161a0013e2e3

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This is the second post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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On our second full day at Watoga State Park, we hiked Monongaseneka Trail (5.5 miles after we added some neighboring trails to create a loop plus 2 miles on bike to return to our car), and biked 15 miles on the Greenbrier River Trail, which we accessed about 30 minutes away so that we could catch the segment of the trail through the 400-foot long Droop Mountain Tunnel.    

If you just want to skip to our adventure, scroll on; if you’re looking for some packing tips, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Light-weight raincoat - if there's a chance of rain, you won't regret bringing a lightweight waterproof jacket with you. My favorite is this GORE-TEX jacket, and it has seen many damp trails!

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Hydration backpack - unless you are going for a very short hike, bringing water is a must. Dustin has a very old Camelbak circa 2000, and I have a new-ish one from Gregory that I have used on multiple hiking trips and love. While the Gregory Sula 16 is not currently available, here are some other options. We each have a 3-liter water bladder.

• Headlight style flashlight - A headlight, like this one from REI that we each use, was handy for our bike ride through a dark tunnel since our bikes don’t have lights on them.

Day 2: Hiking Monongaseneka Trail at Watoga State Park and Biking the Greenbrier River Trail through Droop Mountain Tunnel

Hiking a loop trail: Monongaseneka trail to river view loop to north boundary trail to bear pen trail

After a leisurely breakfast at the cabin, we headed for our morning hike on Monongaseneka Trail.  The trailhead to this route is right off the main road in the park and has a small (5-6 car) parking lot across the street.  The trail itself takes an immediate steep incline off the road and gains some quick elevation before evening out up the hill. 

Monongaseneka Trail is listed as 2.5 miles one way, so while our initial plan was to hike it out-and-back, something we always try to avoid, we ended up turning it into a loop trail.  Our total route – which I’ll describe in more detail below – clocked in at 5.4 miles and took us 3 hours 17 minutes (including stops for photos and a snack).  One note, though is that we exited the loop we created right near our cabin and then still had to go two miles back to where we left our car, which we did later in the day on our bikes.  So this longer loop was really about 7.4 miles.

Once Monongaseneka Trail leaves the road and heads uphill, it veers into the deeper recesses of the park, culminating near the park’s north border.   This trail is definitely for foot traffic only and was nearly always a narrow, single tracked trail along the side of the mountain.  Watching your footfall is important!

There were some neat rocky sections, though they were fairly limited.  We also spotted a turtle (or a turtle shell?) who was hanging out next to the trail.  As with many trails in the park, there were lots of Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurels with the occasional bloom on the former.  And as with other trails in the park, the maintenance of the trail has been a tad . . . lax.  We continued to climb over numerous downed trees until we got to a section where several spindly trees had fallen across the trail in a jumbled mess.  There was no way to go over or under them, so we scaled the steep incline of the mountain above the trees to rejoin the trail.  There were other sections that were fairly overgrown, but the trail was always clearly marked and easy to follow.

After a hike uphill, we found a sign indicating a ½ mile River View Loop.  Given that the Monongaseneka Trail is listed as having pretty views of the Greenbrier River and the loop is visible on the trail map as being part of it, we took the loop.  Based on the final distance we hiked, though, it appears that the Monongaseneka Trail when combined with this loop is actually 3 miles instead of the advertised 2.5. 

The loop portion of the trail meandered out along a ridgeline and culminated in a sweeping vista of the surrounding mountains and Greenbrier River below.  It is one of the prettiest views from a trail in the park.  We hung out there for a bit to eat a snack and enjoy one-bar internet service since most of the park is fully in a dead zone.  As we’re both using the Duolingo app to learn Portuguese and have solid streaks of daily activity going, we took a moment to check our daily language lessons off the list.

After looping back and continuing the Monongaseneka Trail to its terminus, where it meets up with the North Boundary Trail, we decided we didn’t want to return back the way we came and made our plans to turn our trek into the larger loop.  Along this segment, we spotted two different toads – one that was mostly brown/gray with black spots that hid very nicely in the leaves, and a second one that was mostly black with some orange peeking through.

North Boundary Trail – which is named literally for the fact that it is along the park’s northernmost property line – is a fire road style trail.  After lots of up and down hill during the first part of our hike, we enjoyed the 1 ¼ mile walk along this trail that mostly followed the ridgeline.  Finally, we met up with the Bear Pen Trail and took that for about 1 ¼ mile until we met up with one of the trail exits near our cabin. 

Bear Pen Trail through that portion (the trail itself is much longer) was gorgeous and peaceful.  It was almost entirely downhill and within a Rhododendron forest.  It was here that we met our first and only other hiker – a man with four large dogs, 3 German Shepherds, 1 unknown breed that was probably a German Shepherd mix.  He had two dogs on a leash and two running wild until he saw us and then tried to get them to come back to him.  The two rogue pups saw us and the one of the unknown breed variety charged up the hill towards us, tongue flopping to the side and with a gleam of something in its eye that was either unbridled joy or something else that made Dustin call out to the man: “Are they friendly?” to which we received a resounding “yes.”  As much as I love dogs and enjoy watching them tromp through the woods freely, it definitely bothers me to see dogs off leash in places that clearly indicate they should be leashed.

Finally, we reached the main road after crossing a small bridge, and headed home for lunch and dog walking.  We definitely enjoyed doing this as a combined loop trail for much more forest and topographic variety.

biking greenbrier river trail from beard to droop mountain tunnel

Our plan for after lunch was to head to Greenbrier River Trail for some biking.  Because our car was still two miles away at the trailhead, we hopped on our bikes and coasted the entire two miles downhill.

When we visited Watoga State Park two years ago, we had biked a portion of the Greenbrier River Trail from the nearest access point in Seebert (literally a minute from the park) north to Buckeye.  To see different portions this time, we decided to drive to another access point that would allow us to check out the Droop Mountain Tunnel.  We drove 30 minutes to the Beard access point, which is at mile marker 38.5.  (Seebert is at 45.8).  The drive to Beard took us through the closest small town of Hillsboro and the surrounding countryside, which is absolutely gorgeous: rolling hills, beautiful blue mountains, basically quintessential country views. 

As an unexpected view, right near the access point in the small town of Denmar was a medium security prison (Denmar Correctional Center), surrounded by barbed wire.  There were literally houses across the street, which I can’t fathom.  And the best was a sign that warned drivers not to pick up hitchhikers.  Duly noted. A quick internet search (later, when we had internet) confirmed that they have had escapees in the past.

The parking lot along the Greenbrier River Trail looked like it could hold 8-10 cars, perhaps creatively, but there was only one other vehicle there when we arrived.  By this time it was just after 4pm.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for a bike ride.  We headed south to get to the Droop Mountain Tunnel, a 402 foot long former train tunnel carved through the rocky mountain.

The majority of the Greenbrier River Trail along this portion runs at a higher elevation along the river.  While some shrubs along its shoulders are a bit overgrown, we still had lots of beautiful vistas of the river as it meandered through the valley with mountains rising up on either side.  The trail itself was mostly gravel, sometimes dirt. 

Along our route we passed two separate campsite areas – the first had two campsites and an outhouse, the second had one campsite. 

The tunnel itself was worth the ride – you could see where people had created the massive hole through the mountain for train passage.  Within the 402 foot long tunnel were reflectors along the side but it was truly pitch dark inside.  While our bikes don’t have lights on them (note to self: get lights), we did think to bring our headlights so we were able to ride through the dark tunnel safely and take some fun photos.  On the other side of the tunnel, we read a little bit about its history and then headed back the way we came. 

Interestingly, the Droop Mountain Battlefield took place just atop the tunnel. During our prior visit, we went to the Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park and enjoyed exploring the history, trails, and viewing tower. You can read more about that spot here.

All-in-all, this roundtrip ride was 15.3 miles long and took us just under 3 hours with our stopping for photographs and, yes, to give our butts a rest from the bike seats.  Even though we had our padded bike shorts on, these things are not comfortable!

Given our later evening and lots of physical activity, we decided we wanted to grab a bite to eat on the way back to our cabin.  There is basically nothing en route (Hillsboro has a restaurant but it is only open later in the week) except a spot in Seebert that is a bit of an all-in-one (mini mart, restaurant, souvenirs, and equipment rentals for the river) called Jack Horner’s Corner.  We got a couple of club sandwiches and an order of fries and headed back to the cabin to feed our pups a late dinner (sorry girls!) and feed ourselves. The sandwiches hit the spot!

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]]>Watoga State Park, WV - Day 2Adventures in TravelWest VirginiaSeries: WatogaLindseySun, 14 Jul 2024 20:42:52 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/watoga15b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:66895b525ea23424a96e5a52

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This is the first post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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Arrival at Watoga State Park

TRAVEL FROM ROANOKE, VA TO watoga state park, WV

We arrived around 4:30pm after a 2.5 hour drive from Virginia across the mountains dividing Virginia from West Virginia.  The day was pretty with blue skies and the temperature continued to drop by about ten degrees from a humid low 90s in Virginia to a tolerable light humid low 80s in West Virginia.  Check-in at the Administrative Building was simple.  Dustin went inside and came back out with keys and a few maps within a handful of minutes.  As always, our dogs spent those minutes in a full blown panic that he was forever lost to them in spite of plentiful lived expenses indicating otherwise.

This was our second visit to Watoga State Park.  We previously spent four days in the park two years ago.  During that visit, we ended up doing minimal exploration within the park itself and mostly drove out to check out other surrounding hikes and spots in Pocahontas County. You can read about that trip here.  This time, the goal was to explore the hiking within the park and bike more on the Greenbrier River Trail, a rail-to-trail path that is 77 miles in length.

watoga state park LOCATION AND CHECK-IN

Watoga State Park is located in eastern West Virginia in Pocahontas County, the county directly north of the more well-known Greenbrier County (home to Greenbrier Resort). The park is the largest state park in West Virginia at over 10,000 acres.

Watoga is also designated as an International Dark Sky Park, meaning it is far enough away from city lights and population centers to offer beautiful views of the night sky, away from light pollution.

Watoga is just next to a teeny town of Seebert, about 15 minutes away from the slightly larger town of Hillsboro (population 230), and about 30 minutes away from the town of Marlinton (population 1100). Because of the rural location, lack of widespread internet in the area generally, visitors should expect to have no cell phone or internet reception while in the area. Plan ahead by printing maps, researching spots you wish to visit, etc. On hikes to higher elevations, we would often get 1-2 bars of cell service and check the weather and a few other basics. Even out on the main roads, there was typically no service. Marlinton was an exception, and we had solid phone/internet service while in that town.

The administrative building is located in a central portion of the park, nearby the park’s lake. They offer check-in during their regular hours in a spot that also houses a small gift shop and sells other necessities. For visitors arriving late, they ask that you call ahead to inform them, and they’ll leave a packet and keys out. They also have a return box for check-outs outside of their regular hours.

OVERVIEW OF OUR CABIN AT watoga STATE PARK

During our first visit two years prior, we opted to stay in one of the “legacy cabins,” a cabin built by the CCC.  Twenty-four cabins in the park are legacy cabins.  Another 10, including 2 which are ADA accessible, are more modern “classic cabins”.  While we enjoyed the older cabin, it was a bit drafty and small.  This trip, we opted for a newer cabin, which is very much on par with many state cabins we have experienced elsewhere.  We rented a two bedroom, one bath. 

The front door opens into a small, cozy family room with a sofa and two chairs around a fireplace.  Just beyond is a 4-person dining room table that is situated next to the small but functional kitchen (oven, stove, microwave, fridge, toaster).   Straight ahead from the front door is the bathroom and to the left are two bedrooms, one with a queen-sized bed, the other with two twins.  The winning feature of this cabin (#9) is a large front porch.  There are also two grassy/mossy yards on either side, one of which has a picnic table and firepit.  The porch itself has a camp-style grill, Adirondack chairs for relaxing, and a small outdoor table and chair set.

Watoga also provides a bundle of firewood for each night, so we were provided an ample supply for our five night stay, though we didn’t end up using any of it this trip.  The cabin sits along the main (but quiet) road through the park and backs up to a fairly steep incline.  One thing we remembered from our prior stay is that this group of cabins in Island Lick Cabin Area are at a lower part of the park and are nestled into a bit of a hollow.  This means that sunrise comes a little late and sunset a little early with the mountains blocking the light.  We also know that there are some amazing spots higher up to enjoy both sunset and starry nights in this park.

ITINERARY PLANNING AT watoga state park

As we typically do when arriving for one of our hiking trips, we spent a short time the first evening plotting out our itinerary for the week. 

We identified 6 hikes (the vast majority of hikes offered in the park) that we wanted to check out, coming in at about 28 miles in length.  We selected two sections of the Greenbrier River Trail we wanted to bike, coming in at about 30 miles in length over two 15 mile segments.  We then determined what we’d do each day based on the lengths and to use the biking to break up long hikes. 

So, our itinerary ended up with two activities a day planned over the course of our four full days in the park.  Because of a chance of thunderstorms on our final day, we made sure to prioritize our top picks earlier in the week. It turned out that the last day of our trip was rainy (off-and-on) and had some minor thunderstorms, so we ended up scratching our original itinerary and found some fun alternative activities instead: both lunch and dinner at restaurants in Marlinton, touring the Cranberry Mountain Visitor Center and enjoying a short nature walk, and hiking 1.5 miles roundtrip to Falls of Hills Creek, a 3-part waterfall.

Itinerary for Day 1 at Watoga State Park

Our first day in the park was a hiking day. We selected a 4.5 mile Brooks Arboretum hike on the Honey Bee Trail for the morning and headed higher up in the park for an afternoon loop hike on the Honeymoon Trail, 3 miles in length.

hiking honey bee trail in brooks arboretum at watoga state park

First up on our hiking list: the 4.5 mile Honey Bee Trail at Brooks Arboretum.  Brooks Arboretum is an area of Watoga State Park that hosts 3 trails.  The best way to think of them is a large loop trail (Honey Bee Trail) with a cross in the middle of it, each arm of the cross being a separate trail.  This provides hikers with ample options to cut the trail into smaller routes.  It took us about 2.5 hours to hike the 4.5 miles, which allowed for some time to stop and read placards about the trees (a feature of it being an arboretum) and catch up on some things with internet connectivity at the top of the ridge. 

Because Honey Bee Trail is a loop, hikers can pick which direction to go.  One option is labeled as having a “steep grade” and basically cuts the trail up to the top of a ridgeline immediately.  We opted for that route.  I’d always rather climb up a steep incline than down and this allowed us to get some of the more strenuous hiking out of the way early on.  While it definitely felt like climbing to the top of a ridge, the elevation change wasn’t as bad as some other hikes we’ve done.  Early in the trail and at the end, we walked along a creek called Two Mile Run and enjoyed the water bubbling over rocks and traversing a couple of pedestrian bridges.

The hike was nice and woodsy.  There were not really views because of the extensive tree cover.  This also meant we were out of the sun.  Much of the area is filled with Oak and Maple trees and the very popular Mountain Laurel and Rhododendrons, some of which were still (surprisingly) in bloom in early July.  For the most part, the trail was undulating up and down small hills and was a very pleasant hike.  We only came across one other hiking couple during the entire time we were there so it’s not super packed if you assume that a summer holiday week with nice weather should be peak time for visitors.

hiking honeymoon trail at watoga state park

After a brief break for lunch and to walk the pups, we headed into the park’s higher elevations to hike the Honeymoon Trail, which is about 3 miles in length, a portion of which cuts through Pine Run Cabin Area and allowed us to see a number of cabins we hadn’t yet seen.

Honeymoon Trail doesn’t officially have a parking lot at a trailhead so we drove to one of the trailheads just down from the T.M. Cheek Memorial Overlook and noticed there was a pull off spot on the side of the road.  There were no ‘no parking’ signs so we decided to pull off on the side of the road.  There is a short jaunt downhill to meet up with the Honeymoon Trail.  At the intersection, we took a right. 

This trail starts at a higher elevation, drops down to an area with some cabins, traces along a creek, and then heads back uphill for a fairly steep but short duration, though the total elevation change is about 400 feet.  This hike had many more pine trees than our morning hike and they were intermingled with blueberry bushes and more Mountain Laurel and Rhododendrons.  In general the trail was fairly narrow and in spots, overgrown a little.  During both hikes we climbed over a handful of downed trees that made us suspect that the trail maintenance may be a tad laidback. (Over the course of the rest of our trip, that suspicion would be confirmed, though it didn’t impede our enjoyment.)

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]]>Watoga State Park, WV - Day 1Adventures in TravelKentuckySeries: Carter CavesLindseySun, 07 Jul 2024 15:05:22 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/overview-carter-caves5b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:665a648c61079503d7e37538

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UPDATED: 10/14/2025

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This is the seventh post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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Planning our Trip to Carter Caves State Park

how we determined our destination: carter caves state park

As those of you who have been following along on our adventures for a while know, we have three Labrador Retrievers who are seniors, ranging in age from 11.5 to 14.5. At this stage of their life, we’re not keen to board them, so we’ve been planning trips that are within a driving distance of our home in Virginia at places that allow multiple large dogs, no easy feat! We’ve found state park cabins to be a surprisingly wonderful option, one that frankly wasn’t even on our radar before.

We’ve visited several state parks in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky and so started scanning anything within a 5-hour drive of our home and were intrigued by Carter Caves State Park because it has hiking, which we love, but it also has amazing caves and natural bridges/arches. Those aspects helped that park stand out, so we went ahead and booked a cabin!

where we stayed: cabin accommodations in carter caves state park

Carter Caves State Park is in Olive Hill, Kentucky, about 45 minutes from Huntington, WV, and about 20 minutes from the actual town of Olive Hill. It’s right off Interstate 64 so is easy to find. The park offers multiple accommodation options: RV and tent camping, hotel-like accommodations in the Lodge, and private cabins/cottages.

We booked in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cabin and found it to be more spacious than what we’re used to at other state park cabins. The way the reservations work at this park, you can reserve a cabin type (e.g., one bedroom) but cannot select the specific cabin. The park will assign you a cabin at check-in. We ended up with cabin 239, which sits by itself off the main park road and is far away from the main cluster of cabins, so I’m not sure how similar ours was to the others. We felt incredibly lucky to get this one off by itself.

The cabin entered in to a large family room with a large fireplace. We used it two nights with wood purchased from the Lodge. (Due to various infestations, you cannot bring your own wood from home here or at any other park we’ve visited). To the left of the family room is a small hall that holds two bedrooms and the bathroom. From the right of the family room is a stand-alone dining room space that connects back to the kitchen. The kitchen also connects back to the bedroom area. Off the dining room is a reasonably sized laundry room with full-sized washer and dryer and a back door that leads outside. Off the front of the house is a slightly raised porch with a table. We enjoyed sitting out there several evenings. The back of the house has a more rustic patio space without any furniture but with a basic campsite style grill.

There is a nice driveway that can hold multiple vehicles, making loading and unloading a snap.

The kitchen was moderately stocked with pots, pans, utensils, plates, and glasses. It did not have any cooking supplies (not even salt or pepper), so make sure to bring your own. There was a glass pyrex 2-cup measuring cup and one measuring spoon, which I think was a tablespoon, but not typical measuring cups and spoons for anyone planning to cook more complex dishes. There is a dishwasher and both dish soap and dishwasher soap are provided, as are dish towels and oven mitts.

The cabin included linens - towels, bedding, extra pillows, and blankets. You should always confirm whether a state park cabin includes linens. Virginia, for example, stopped providing them at the start of COVID and never restarted, so we make sure to bring all of that with us when we visit a Virginia state park (and yes, it is annoying for packing!).

The bathroom has dispensers in the shower for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. The laundry room did not appear to have any laundry detergent, though we didn’t check closely.

If you forget basics, like a toothbrush, the Lodge offers them for sale, and if you run out of items provided (e.g., dishwasher detergent), they’ll happily provide more upon your asking.

where we ate: dining options in carter caves state park

Housed in the bottom floor of the Lodge is Tierney’s Cavern, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While the hours vary by day and possibly seasonally, it is generally open from about 7:30am to 8 or 9pm with a 30-60 minute closure between each meal. The restaurant offers carry-out and sometimes offers a salad bar.

The restaurant has a bit of a lodge/diner feel to it and has a wall of windows overlooking a porch with pretty potted flowers and trees beyond. We ate there three times for lunch and while it had diners, it was never loud or crowded. It was well staffed and had friendly, responsive servers.

The menu for lunch and dinner is the same and has a number of southern-inspired recipes, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and salads. While we didn’t eat there for breakfast they had a variety of the standard breakfast fare you’d expect - eggs, bacon, pancakes, breakfast burritos, etc. The restaurant serves wine and beer.

Since we brought our food with us for this trip, we didn’t really need to get any food out so didn’t seriously explore other options outside of the park. The towns of Olive Hill and Grayson are each about 20 minutes away and have multiple dining options.

what were the highlights of our trip to carter caves state park

With lots of hikes, caves, and natural bridges/arches, this is a park with a lot more versatility than many others! The park also has a number of other activities that we didn’t explore - mini golf, a swimming pool, kayak/canoe rentals for the lake, and more.

If you want to read more about your trip, we offer you two options: (1) you can follow our day-by-day itinerary, replete with all the stories of the trip (and this one definitely had some stories!) by clicking on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, or Day 4; or (2) if you want to get down to the basics about the hikes and caves in the park, you can check out our post dedicated to each.

The highlights of our trip were:

• The lantern tour of Saltpeter Cave - This cave is only open for tours in the warmer months when the hibernating bats have moved on their merry way, and even then, the lantern tour is only offered a small number of times per week. I love history so touring this cave that played a role in the production of gunpowder for the War of 1812 by lantern-light, which is what people of that era would have used, was a super cool experience!

• Self-guided cave treks through Laurel and Horn Hollow Caves - Getting permits and heading into two caves with no information of what to expect and only our own flashlights to light our way was just a smidge outside of my standard comfort zone. Both caves were totally different from each other and absolutely amazing experiences.

• Three Bridges Trail - This 3.5 mile loop hike offers just the right amount of challenges and in return offers views of three of the park’s six natural bridges/arches.

• Box Canyon Trail - Coming in at the short distance of 0.8 miles and taking us only about 20 minutes, this is one of the most beautiful hikes in the park. It is also home to one of the natural bridges/arches.

• Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (“4 Cs Trail”) - This 8.5 mile trek into the backcountry of the park was really enjoyable. We had views of the lake, crossed two suspension bridges, saw one of the coolest arches in the park, Shangra La Arch, and enjoyed the elevation climbs and falls along the way (about 1500 feet elevation change in total). This trail isn’t for everyone, but we really enjoyed it!

Would we return to Carter Caves State Park?

Probably not but only because we really saw everything we wanted to see in our four full days there! We hiked all the hiking trails plus a couple of the multi-use trails, saw all 6 natural bridges/arches in the park, took all the guided cave tours, and toured both self-guided caves. We would absolutely recommend this park to everyone else!

Trip Do-Over: What would we do differently?

I can honestly answer my favorite answer to this: Nothing. Four full days was exactly the right amount of time to see all the things we saw. While we covered a lot of ground (literally), I still think we did a good job of pacing ourselves with a mixture of cave tours, hikes, and the like so that we didn’t get worn down from too many miles in one day. That said, we are fairly active people and reasonably experienced hikers. Others may prefer a different pace and more or less time.

Visiting at the tail end of May was absolutely the perfect time: the weather was nice and not buggy, the caves closed during the winter opened a few days before our visit, and the park wasn’t dead but it wasn’t crowded by any stretch.

The only potential (minor) note is that two of the standard cave tours (Cascades Cave and X Cave) had brand new seasonal hires, both in high school, leading the tours. They both did a great job but were clearly nervous and still learning the ropes. I’d imagine by later in the season the guides have had more experience. If you’re just coming for a day trip to tour some caves, later in the summer may be better from that perspective.

Our Driving Route

This is the pretty route we took from our home of Roanoke, VA, to the park. This route has three tolls through West Virginia.

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]]>Trip Overview - 4 Days at Carter Caves State Park in Eastern KentuckyAdventures in TravelSeries: Carter CavesKentuckyLindseySat, 06 Jul 2024 14:06:40 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/hiking-at-carter-caves5b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:665bbfbe5c60fe0d4f364500

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UPDATED: 10/14/2025

Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

This is the sixth post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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We spent four full days (and five nights) at Carter Caves State Resort Park. We enjoyed all seven of the park’s hiking trails (about 14.5 miles in total), which varied in length from small connector trails up to 8.5 miles. We also hiked 2 of the 5 multi-use trails, exploring 4.5 miles out of 16.5 miles of those. We visited all 6 of the park’s natural bridges/arches, a significant amount to be housed so close together in one park! In addition to the hikes, the park has amazing caving options - from three guided cave tours to two self-guided options - and I’d recommend you check out our post on that if you’re interested. We really enjoyed the hikes at this park and would recommend others visit!

If you just want to skip to learn about hiking, scroll on; if you’re looking for some tips on what to bring with you, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Light-weight raincoat - if there's a chance of rain, you won't regret bringing a lightweight waterproof jacket with you. My favorite is this GORE-TEX jacket, and it has seen many damp trails!

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Hydration backpack - unless you are going for a very short hike, bringing water is a must. Dustin has a very old Camelbak circa 2000, and I have a new-ish one from Gregory that I have used on multiple hiking trips and love. While the Gregory Sula 16 is not currently available, here are some other options. We each have a 3-liter water bladder.

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General Hiking Information for Carter Caves State Park

getting to carter caves state park

Carter Caves State Park is located in Eastern Kentucky, just four miles off of Interstate 64. The closest town is Olive Hill, just under 20 minutes away. The largest nearby city is Huntington, WV, which is about 45 minutes away.

where to stay at carter caves state park

The park itself offers accommodations at the park lodge (similar to hotel rooms), private cabins (which is where we stayed), and RV and tent camping. It is equestrian-friendly for those traveling with their horses, and the 5 multi-use trails are horse friendly. You can learn more about our positive experience with the private cabin in this post.

dining at carter caves state park

There is a restaurant - Tierney’s Cavern - located at the lodge, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you need sustenance, this is a great option. We ate lunch there three days and enjoyed the club sandwich the most. While hours vary by day and probably by season, they typically open around 7:30am and stay open until 8 or 9pm, depending on the day. There is usually a 30-60 minute closure between each meal. In addition to food, the restaurant serves beer and wine.

what to know before hiking at carter caves state park

• The multi-use trails are for hikers, bikers, and horses. If the two were hiked in full and the others that we temporarily walked along as cut-overs are any indication, these are very muddy trails due to the horse use. If that’s not of interest to you, there are plenty of trails that aren’t multi-use!

• Due to the hilliness and rockiness of the area, I’d recommend sturdy hiking boots that cover the ankles. Similarly for those who enjoy hiking sticks or appreciate the stability they offer, bring those. While we don’t use them ourselves, there are a number of rocky segments on several hikes.

• Other than the 8.5 mile Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (“4 Cs Trail”) and Box Canyon Trail, the non multi-use trails are very close to the main roads of the park and not isolated.

• While there is wildlife in the area and you need to be bear aware, as they say, we only saw chipmunks, squirrels, and deer. Although, we’re pretty sure we saw bear poop on a multi-use trail that was further away from the main park. Keep in mind, the bears in the area would be black bears, which are typically not a threat to humans.

• Be aware of the weather. We are not experts on the park or the area’s geology, but throughout our hikes, there were a lot of areas that clearly fill up with water during certain conditions but were dry during our visit. Given that there had been a large storm the day before we got there, our conclusion is that these dry water beds may be typically inundated during quick downpours and be more of a flash flood risk. We’re used to spots that look like this having at least a trickle of water after a storm. A lot of trails traverse these dry creek beds so be extra cautious if there is rain or a thunderstorm in the weather forecast.

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Hiking Itinerary at Carter Caves State Park

Given that we had four full days at the park, we had plenty of time to hike any trail we wanted to. We also enjoyed time touring and exploring 5 caves. In some cases, we combined multiple trails or connector options in different ways to avoid back-tracking hikes we’d already taken. What follows below is an overview of the various hikes we took that reflects this approach. The shortest hike we took was 0.8 miles, and the longest (by far) was 8.5 miles. These are not in a specific rank-order but the first handful are generally ones we enjoyed more than those at the end.

HIKING BOX CANYON TRAIL at CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 0.8 miles in length, took us just over 20 minutes

• Home to Cascades Bridges, one of six natural bridges/arches in the park

• Located down the street from the main park entrance, easy to find, ample parking

With a little extra time to spare after touring Cascade Caves, which is accessed from the same spot as this hike, we decided on a whim to tackle the Box Canyon Trail.  The short trail was absolutely gorgeous.  The park brochure calls it the prettiest hike in the park, and I wouldn’t argue with them!  The path was very hilly, very green (in late May), rocky at times, and provided amazing vistas of rocky outcrops. Individuals needing extra stability should consider using walking sticks.

THREE BRIDGES TRAIL AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 3.5 miles in length, took us about 2 hours 15 minutes with plenty of stops to take photos

• Home to half of the six natural bridges/arches in the park: Ravens Bridge, Fern Bridge, and Smoky Bridge.

• There are several access points to this trail. We joined it near the Lodge. With your back to the front door of the Lodge, you’ll see the road continue to a bit of a cul-de-sac straight ahead. The trailhead is visible right where that road ends. There is ample parking.

Three Bridges Trail is named for the fact that you can access and view three of the park’s six natural bridges/arches from this trail. For those not interested in hiking 3.5 miles to see the three bridges, there are alternative (shorter) ways to see each. Smoky Bridge can be accessed via an approximately 0.3 mile access point behind the Lodge; Raven Bridge can be accessed via the 0.7 mile Raven Bridge Trail (which we also did later in the week and allows for views of the bridge both above it and below it); and Fern Bridge is a bit more isolated but can be accessed from a connector trail near the cabins and a 0.4 mile-ish hike. All that to say, I’d highly recommend doing the full 3.5 mile hike for those able to do so!

Three Bridges Trail, after starting near the Lodge, loops around in a large 3.5 mile long circle, eventually passing near the Welcome Center before heading back uphill.  This hike is one of the longer hikes and well worth the time and energy.  Each of the natural bridges is enormous, beautiful, and a fascinating example of what nature can create with just enough time and the right balance of rock layers and wind and water erosion.

The hike was moderate to difficult, depending on someone’s point of view.  It was fairly hilly, at times rocky, and had an elevation change of over 600 feet.  We very much enjoyed the route. Note: this path shares about 1.5 miles of its trail with the long trail in the park - the Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (or “4 Cs Trail”). When we did the 4Cs trail later in the week, we selected an alternative path so we didn’t double back through this section. You can read about that below.

carter caves cross country trail (“4 Cs Trail”) AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 8.5 miles in length, took us about 4.5 hours with plenty of stops to take photos. There are clear warning signs in the park about this path. It is on hilly and rocky terrain, is in the backcountry (you’ll likely not pass anyone else during the majority of your time on the path), and they recommend allowing 6 hours for completion. I’d add that there are a lot of creek beds we walked through that were fully dry for us but have signs of significant water. If the weather has just been stormy or threatens to be stormy, I’d be cautious starting out on this, as you may find yourself unable to cross or trying to walk on slippery rocks.

• Home to one of the six natural bridges/arches in the park: Shangra La Arch; the route to two permit-required backcountry camping sites; provides views of the lake; and has two suspension bridges, which were fun.

• There are several access points to this trail. We joined it near the Lodge by first taking 0.5 miles on the Three Bridges Trail first. The reason we chose this option is that the park map indicates that one section of the trail may be impassible due to high water, and we did not want to get to that spot after a long hike and have to turn around. This access point allowed us to get there as quickly as possible.

We really enjoyed this lengthy hike, and because we wrote so much about it on our post about our fourth day in the park, please read that post if you want to learn more!

NATURAL BRIDGE TRAIL AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 0.5 miles in length, took us about 15 minutes

• This trail is entirely about the Natural Bridge, one of six natural bridges/arches in the park and the easiest to access.

• Located downhill from the Welcome Center, there is ample parking. If your back is to the Welcome Center door, the trailhead is to your right. Walk along the sidewalk, and you’ll see signs just past the building. A maintenance road runs alongside the path for a bit.

This path heads downhill to one of the multiple natural bridges (arches) in the park, goes through the arch itself, and then climbs atop the geologic wonder.  From atop, you can gaze down through a large hole in the top that was visible from below, which was cool, and then the trail heads back up to the Welcome Center again.  Having so many naturally forming arches in one park is really quite spectacular! This short walk is great for people of varying abilities, though I will note that there is a short, steep climb uphill to access the area above the arch and continue the short loop.

HORN HOLLOW TRAIL at carter caves

Quick facts:

• 1.5 miles in length, probably took us 40ish minutes but we stopped midway for a self-guided cave tour, which threw our time tracker off!

• A meandering trail through the woods with just a couple hundred feet in elevation change over its course. The real highlight of this trail is the Horn Hollow Cave, which you can visit on your own with a (free) permit. Absent plans to tour that, this hike is nice but not one of our favorites in the park. You can read more about the cave experience here.

• Located uphill from the Welcome Center, there is ample parking. If your back is to the Welcome Center door, the trailhead is to your left at the end of the road and up the hill.

Horn Hollow Trail is 1.5 miles with the cave right in the middle of the distance.  The trail was nice, wooded, and cut alongside creeks.  This might be a good trail for those looking to expose their children to a hike that is on the shorter side.

HIKING RAVEN BRIDGE TRAIL AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 1.3 miles in length, took us about 37 minutes (note: we made a loop that combined Raven Bridge Trail with a portion of Three Bridges Trail and Rockbridge Trail. Alternatively, hikers could walk a similar distance as an out-and-back on just Ravens Bridge Trail)

• This is a great route to check out one of the park’s six natural bridges/arches: Raven Bridge.

• Located uphill from the Lodge, there is ample parking at the Lodge itself, in the overflow parking, and uphill from the Lodge. The sign for the trail is visible from near the Lodge. With your back to the front door of the Lodge, you’ll see the road continue to a bit of a cul-de-sac straight ahead. The trailhead is visible right where that road ends. This is the same trailhead to join Three Bridges Trail. There is ample parking.

Raven Bridge Trail culminates at none other than Raven Bridge, one of the park’s natural bridges/arches.  This one can be viewed from both above and below if you hike down several flights of stairs at the end of the path. 

From there, hikers can back-track up the stairs or return to the Lodge area by taking the Three Bridges Trail for a bit. Once on Three Bridges, hikers can take that all the way back to the Lodge or take a cut-over connector trail called Rockhouse Trail (0.1 miles) back up to the Raven Bridge Trail. Since we’d already hiked Three Bridges, we took the connector trail and were glad we did.  It held some amazing rock outcrops and rock faces, huge boulders, and was picturesque.  This relatively short loop hike we took was through a peaceful, pretty part of the woods and had a few areas of uphill and downhill sprinkled throughout. We ended up with several ticks on us at the end of the day and suspect we picked them up during this part of our hiking, though we don’t know for sure. These were the first ticks we saw on the trip. We also picked some up on the 8.5 mile 4 Cs Trail.

HIKING MULLIGAN TRAIL AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 2.2 miles in length, took us about 45 minutes

• This is the former golf course within the park, and the trail itself is the former golf cart trail, which has eroded over time. This is the least woodsy path we took in the park.

• Located uphill from the Lodge, there is ample parking at the Lodge itself, in the overflow parking, and uphill from the Lodge. The sign for the trail is visible from near the Lodge. If you have your back to the Lodge door, walk left along the sidewalk in front of the rooms, and look across the street. You’ll see a narrow road that goes up with the sign.

After spending a few hours indoors in cool cave temperatures, we hiked Mulligan Trail, which gave us a lot of warm sun.  There was a vague feel of urban decay to it (which made it cool, in my opinion), and the fields and trees were pretty with rolling hills.  While this is not exactly a traditional hike, it was a nice way to spend a little time outdoors in the afternoon.  It certainly wouldn’t have made our list of top hikes to take in the park, but with 4 full days here, we had plenty of time for everything.

HIKING CAVE BRANCH TRAIL AT CARTER CAVES

Quick facts:

• 3.1 miles in length, took us about 1 hour 20 minutes

• This is one of the few multi-use trails we took. This means it is open to hikers, bikers, and horses. Plan for mud.

• Located in the nearby Tygarts State Forest but managed by Carter Caves State Park, this trail is a 5-8 minute drive from the main park. It was easy to find. How to get there: Coming out of the park, we took a left on route 182 then another left on a small country road called Oakland Ridge Road. There is a small parking lot, and we were the only ones there during our visit. Alternatively, another access point to the trail is to hike from the Welcome Center on a maintenance road to a small section of two other trails to eventually meet up with the Cave Branch Trail. 

Cave Branch Trail certainly lives up to its name as a multi-use trail. It was quite torn up and muddy from horses.  We saw plenty of horseshoe prints and no indication of bike tires during our visit. While there were some elevation changes, they were generally mild and spotty so it was a path that we could walk fairly quickly.  The path is a loop trail with one length running alongside Cave Branch, a sometime creek.  During our visit, it was entirely dry, despite significant rains recently.  The woods were pretty and green with the spring leaf growth, and all-in-all, it was a nice walk in the woods, despite the significant muddy sections.  This is not a top hiking path in the park and not one that would be enjoyable on a sticky, buggy summer day, but with a slightly cloudy day with temps in the upper 60s, this was a nice way to spend some of the morning. If walking through and around mud annoys you on hikes, I’d skip this one!

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]]>Hiking Trails at Carter Caves State Park in Eastern KentuckyAdventures in TravelSeries: Carter CavesKentuckyLindseyFri, 05 Jul 2024 21:32:20 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/caves-at-carter-caves5b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:665b9278bb10607a28f681e1

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UPDATED: 10/14/2025

Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

This is the fifth post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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We spent four full days (and five nights) at Carter Caves State Resort Part and enjoyed five of the park’s caves during our visit. We took three guided tours, explored two caves entirely on our own as self-guided adventures, and didn’t do some of the more intense caving options. If you have time to do hiking and check out other aspects of the park like the multiple natural bridges/arches, I’d recommend you check out our other posts. If you want to learn just about the cave options, this post is for you! And it won’t disappoint: there are really awesome, unique cave options at Carter Caves State Park!

If you just want to skip to learn about caving, scroll on; if you’re looking for some tips on what to bring with you, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Headlight style flashlight - A headlight, like this one from REI that we each use, was a must for the self-guided cave tours. I’d also recommend bringing a small, bright hand-held for greater versatility.

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General Caving Information for Carter Caves State Park

getting to carter caves state park

Carter Caves State Park is located in Eastern Kentucky, just four miles off of Interstate 64. The closest town is Olive Hill, just under 20 minutes away. The largest nearby city is Huntington, WV, which is about 45 minutes away.

where to stay at carter caves state park

The park itself offers accommodations at the park lodge (similar to hotel rooms), private cabins (which is where we stayed), and RV and tent camping. It is equestrian-friendly for those traveling with their horses. You can learn more about our positive experience with the private cabin in this post.

Carter caves - seasonality

While your desire to tour a cave is appreciated, they are first and foremost the winter hibernation spot of bats. This means that some of the caves at the park are only open when bats are out and about in the warmer months. Of the four guided tour caves, two (Cascade Cave and X Cave) are available year-round since they’re not popular with bats, and two are only open seasonally (Saltpeter Cave and Bat Cave). Of the two self-guided caves, Laurel Cave is home to bats in the winter and is closed, and while Horn Hollow Cave didn’t have any signs that suggested the same so I believe that one is potentially open year-round, though the best thing to do is confirm with the park.

We saw bats in three caves while we were there - one little guy in the Saltpeter Cave, another solo fella in the Laurel Cave, and a cluster of them in Cascade Cave, which is surprising since that’s not a cave they typically spend time in.

what to know before caving at carter caves state park

• Tickets for guided tours can be purchased at the Welcome Center at least 15 minutes before the tour begins. Tour days and times vary so always check the park’s website for the latest info.

• Self-guided cave tours require (free) permits, also available at the Welcome Center. These must be picked up at least 2 hours before the Welcome Center closes (it closed at 6pm during our late May visit).

• Caves are cold. Each cave varies between the upper 40s and about 60 degrees and is constant year-round typically. Wear/bring appropriate clothes since the guided tours last between 45-75 minutes, which is enough time to get quite chilly. We toured with adults and kids in shorts, short sleeves, and even a crop top. Sure, I felt overdressed in a winter hat and fleece, but I wasn’t shivering!

• Self-guided cave treks require much more movement so you don’t need to bundle up as much for those. One layer of long-sleeves was perfectly fine for me, and I’m always cold.

• Self-guided caves require visitors to wear closed-toe shoes (honestly, you should wear sturdy hiking boots) and bring a flashlight. A cell phone flashlight is not considered sufficient. We brought our two headlights and a small hand-held flashlight and liked having both. Self-guided visitors also need at least one person with them. Solo visitors are not permitted to hike the caves on their own.

• Self-guided caves may require you to get wet. Water was knee high for a section of Horn Hollow while we were there and was likely about as deep in one spot of Laurel Cave that we were able to avoid through some suave moves (more on that below).

• And finally, the self-guided caves are super awesome - there aren’t a whole lot of opportunities to explore a cave this way so consider pushing the bounds of your comfort zone if this is a tad outside of it, and you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised!

• Because of white-nose syndrome in bats, which entered this particular park in 2013, the last stop of all the guided tours is to clean visitors’ shoes with a mixture of water and woolite to remove any bits of fungus and prevent further spread. For two of the caves (this one and X Cave), this is accomplished by walking over a vat holding what is essentially a giant sponge. For Saltpeter Cave, they spray the mixture on the floor for visitors to walk through. For those unfamiliar with white-nose syndrome, it’s not a threat to people or anyone else. You can learn more about it here.

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Okay so here we go! First, you can read about the 3 guided cave tours. Next, you’ll find information on the two self-guided cave tours. Finally, I’ll share some basic information about the more intense caving experiences, which is the one thing we chose not to do ourselves.

Group Cave Tours at Carter Caves State Park: Cascade Cave, X Cave, and Saltpeter Cave

exploring cascade cave

Quick facts:

• 75 minute tour

• The tour meets at the cave, which is a short (8 minute or so) drive from the Welcome Center, just outside of the park entrance.

• There are 225 steps on the tour and while the ceilings are mostly tall, there are small areas that require stooping. Walking length is about 3/4 of a mile.

• The tour is both indoors and outdoors - there are two separate cave areas so you’ll be outside a bit.

• Tour cost is $12/adults, $7/child, free for 2 and under as of May 2024. This is the most expensive guided tour in the park and is still significantly less expensive than most private cave tours that we’ve compared it to.

Our experience:

The Cascade Cave tour took about an hour.  Though park materials say it will take about 75 minutes, an exterior portion of it is currently being repaired due to storms and is expected to be reopened in October 2024.  From the parking lot, there is a short walk downhill and down some stairs to the cave.

In our experience, some caves tend to have big, open rooms, others are more narrow spaces, which can be either short or tall in height. The 3 guided tours we took at Carter Caves included one of each type.

Cascade Cave is the one I’d classify as having big, open rooms. There are a few large, beautiful rooms, and a small in-cave creek. In the first room of the cave, we saw a couple groups of bats – maybe 10-20 in each cluster.  The tour guide told us they didn’t see them in that particular cave all that often and that it was the first time he had seen them there (for what that’s worth, as he just started working for the summer season).  This cave used to be privately owned before it was turned over to the state in 1946 and this first room is now called the ‘ballroom’ because the prior owners literally held dances in the space. The stalagmites had been removed from the floor to make the floor flat for dancers, and apparently they would bring in musicians, too. Destruction of thousands of years of stalagmite growth aside, what a cool place for a dance.

The next room was home to the in-cave creek and had a large opening where the water exited to the outside. There was a sandy area near the creek inside the cave (a cave beach?), and the guide told us that the room flooded up to and over the walkway we were standing up, multiple feet higher. He said that one inch of rain outside leads to 10 inches of water depth in the creek, so I’m sure there are times visitors can’t tour this cave during periods of substantial rainfall.

After leaving the main cave rooms, we took a short path outside to another cave area.  This area holds a short hallway-like cave that culminates in an in-cave waterfall with a solid stream of water coming down from above.  The waterfall travels down the cylindrical cave it has formed with the rushing water.  The tour guide told us that they have been unable to identify the source of the waterfall despite testing various hypotheses.  They even used dye in water sources they thought might feed it and had no luck.  So, most likely, it is groundwater seeping out from somewhere, which is also maintaining a constant rate of the water flow. For those who enjoy waterfalls, seeing one within the confines of a cave is a cool experience!

While you’re there . . .

Right next to Cascade Cave is a short 0.8 mile hike called Box Canyon. The park’s brochure calls it the most beautiful hike in the park, and after hiking there for four days, I’d have to say I agree. As a bonus, one of the park’s several natural bridges/arches is on this trail. It is a fairly hilly and rocky trek so not for a beginner hiker but is still fairly quick going if you hike frequently. It took us about 20 minutes.

exploring x cave

Quick facts:

• 45 minute tour

• The tour meets at the Welcome Center. From there, there is a short walk through the parking lot to the cave entrance.

• There are 75 steps on the tour and while the ceilings are mostly tall, there are small areas that require stooping, and the path is on the narrow side. Walking length is about 1/4 of a mile.

• The tour is both indoors and outdoors - midway through, the tour goes outside to enter another entrance to a leg of the cave.

• Tour cost is $10/adults, $6/child, free for 2 and under as of May 2024.

Our experience:

X Cave’s name comes from its shape.  It was once two separate, parallel caves, one dry and one wet, and one much older than the other (as evidenced by its depth).  At some point a section crumbled between them, which is now the central intersection where the two prior caves cross and form an “x”. 

The tour first covered the wet cave, went outside, where we hiked downhill for a bit until we got to the entrance of the other half of the cave, and then we hiked the dry cave.  This cave was not one with expansive rooms compared to Cascade Cave and instead was more like hallways and passageways that were tall and narrow. It was very pretty with interesting walls and ceilings and more obvious “cave diamonds,” the shimmering water along the ceilings and walls that glitter in the light.  I actually think I preferred this one more, though they’re both very different and are worth experiencing. If you go on both tours back-to-back, be prepared for similar spiels from the guides. Both also take a moment to turn off the lights so visitors can experience the darkness of the cave.

While you’re there . . .

Natural Bridge, one of the park’s multiple natural bridges/arches, is a short 0.5 mile roundtrip loop hike that starts right next to the Welcome Center. The trail traverses through the center of the bridge before climbing up atop of it, where visitors can look through a large hole in the rock formation.

exploring saltpeter cave

Quick facts:

• (Okay, this one is an opinion) Do the lantern tour version - it was super cool!

• 45 minute tour

• The tour meets at the Welcome Center. From there, there is a short walk across the road and up some stairs to an area that looks like a shelter in a cage. The stairs down to the cave are within that room.

• There are 75 steps on the tour and there were a number of places that require stooping. I think I stooped more in this cave than any of the other guided tours (I’m 5’9”.) There are also some areas that are a bit narrow, though it’s wider than the X Cave. Walking length is about 1/4 of a mile.

• The tour is entirely indoors once you get to its entrance.

• Tour cost is $10/adults, $6/child, free for 2 and under as of May 2024.

• This is the coldest of the caves in the park and maintains a steady temperature of 48 degrees year-round.

• This cave is a bat hibernation spot and is only open seasonally starting in late May.

Our experience:

We purposefully chose our visit to Carter Caves once the summer season officially allowed for the opening of additional caves, including Saltpeter. In addition to regular tours of Saltpeter Cave, they offer a lantern tour at 2pm three days per week (during their early summer season, check their website for current options), and we quickly decided that was on our to do list for the trip.  I’ve always wanted to do a lantern tour of a cave so here was a chance! 

Saltpeter Cave is so-named because it was used to create saltpeter, an important ingredient in gunpowder, during the War of 1812. According to the tour guide, this single cave produced 10% of all saltpeter that the state of Kentucky produced for that war. So, while that’s not huge in the grand scheme of things, for one fairly small cave to produce so much is also impressive. The gunpowder produced from this cave was used in the battle in New Orleans. So this particular cave, which is more of a historic cave tour than a geologic one, is great to do by lantern light, just like the people using the cave at that time would have done.

Dustin and I had a bet as to whether these would be ‘real’ lanterns.  Real meaning glass lanterns, not plastic; actual fire, not a modern light made to look like fire.  I lost the bet.  The lanterns were actual lanterns with burning flames, and they wisely do not let any children carry them. 

While the other guided tours we had taken in the park were led by high school kids who were brand new and learning the ropes, this guide was more knowledgeable and clearly a history buff, which was really important for the experience of this cave. 

The entry point to Saltpeter Cave is from above, so we descended a dark staircase that changed from cement steps to wooden ones to a final dirt step.  The tour got underway at the bottom of the stairs while our eyes adjusted to the dim lantern light. 

We learned some basics about the War of 1812 before continuing along to the next space that had examples of how the saltpeter was made.  The work was incredibly difficult and labor intensive.  A lot of water was needed to mix with the dirt in the cave, which held the right ingredient for saltpeter production.  Young boys would haul water up from a creek outside of the cave way downhill.  The workers received no pay for the work, having signed up due to patriotic fervor, the promise of three meals a day, and the hope for a land grant at the end of the war.  There was (understandable) tension with the local Shawnee tribes so 2,000 US soldiers guarded the workers in the cave during this era.

Further into the cave, we saw an area that they believed the workers slept in when the weather outside was unpleasant, and a number of other areas of interest. This cave is entirely unlike the others and is clearly impacted by the humans that worked in it. In using the dirt to make saltpeter, the workers tossed huge amount of dirt along the cave’s walls so every passageway is lined with hardened dirt up to about waist height. 

The tour lasted an hour, a bit longer than the 45 minutes advertised, though that may be unique to the pacing of the lantern tour.  The cave had an uneven but generally flat floor and required occasional stooping (for adults) as we walked the halls of the cave.  This cave is the coldest in the park at 48 degrees year-round.  The reason for this is that its five entrances/exits are all above the cave and the heat rises to leave.  This tour was great, and I’d definitely recommend it to others who enjoy history.  Catch the lantern tour option if you can!

While you’re there . . .

(This is the same recommendation as for the X Cave given their proximity to each other.) Natural Bridge, one of the park’s multiple natural bridges/arches, is a short 0.5 mile roundtrip loop hike that starts right next to the Welcome Center. The trail traverses through the center of the bridge before climbing up atop of it, where visitors can look through a large hole in the rock formation.

Self-Guided Cave Tours at Carter Caves State Park: Horn Hollow Cave and Laurel Cave

There are specific requirements for those who wish to take these self-guided tours. None are onerous but they’re important. Check out the section above called “What to know before caving at Carter Caves” for more details.

exploring horn hollow cave

Quick facts:

• This cave can be accessed two ways: (1) one entrance is directly off the 1.5 mile Horn Hollow Trail and is roughly halfway through that trail. This is how we accessed it. (2) Some visitors go through Laurel Cave first (open seasonally) and after leaving Laurel Cave, continue on to Horn Hollow Cave. They then back-track through all of them. We didn’t do that, so I can’t provide directions on how to connect from one to the other.

• This cave requires stooping much of the way (but not crawling).

• If you want to go all the way through from the entrance to the exit, you will likely wade through substantial water. During our visit, the water was knee height. If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can still enjoy a lot of the cave and then turn around before that section. That’s what we did and we spent over 30 minutes in the cave.

Our experience:

Horn Hollow Trail is 1.5 miles with the cave right in the middle of the distance.  The trail was nice, wooded, and cut alongside creeks.  There were very obvious signs indicating the access point to Horn Hollow Cave.  The cave entrance at first looked small enough that I wasn’t sure I was up for the adventure.  It really wasn’t that small but required a little stooping for the first bit. But ahead, I could see a larger space (still short-ish), rivulets of water across a stony cave floor, and what appeared to be a flowing creek beyond. The employee who gave us our permit told us there was water up to knee height in the caves due to rain over the past few months.  With water visible right at the entrance, I was game to try going in a little, fully expecting to bail pretty quickly once the water got deeper. Wading through knee-high cold water didn’t sound fun especially considering that my hiking boots would be totally wet for the rest of our trip. 

As we got in and started to get the lay of the land, we could see both sandy ground to the right and small flows of water to the left.  We had to stoop most of our time in this particular cave but didn’t have to do anything remotely like crawling.  We basically started following the sand, walking a few times in a few inches of water but avoiding the deeper sections.  Eventually we got to an area that would require us to fully wade in to water that was at least ankle deep and around that time, we heard other visitors coming up from the other side of the cave, screaming about how cold the water was and splashing a bit.  We decided to wait for them to come through to see how deep it got.  It was fully up to their knees and so we decided to abort the final bit of the cave and turn around and go out the way we came in.  I glanced at my watch to time how long we were inside this cave, and we were in there over 30 minutes, some of which was just standing around and taking in the sites and trying to determine the best route forward.

But first we got to a spot where we turned off our flashlights and enjoyed the pitch darkness.  Afterwards, we completed the rest of the Horn Hollow Trail and then drove the short distance to Laurel Cave, right down the street. Other hikers who plan differently, hike from Laurel Cave through to the end and then up through Horn Hollow, then returning back through the same caves. The group we passed was doing this; however, because the deepest water in Horn Hollow is at the end closest to Laurel Cave, you have to be prepared to deal with that if you go through both.

exploring laurel cave

Quick facts:

• The main entrance to this cave is along the main park road shortly after the park’s entrance and perhaps close to a mile before the Welcome Center. There is no parking lot but a few pull-out areas for a small number of cars to park. There is also a creek and picnic area so the spot attracts other visitors. We were able to find a parking spot.

• This cave requires maneuvering over rocks and boulders at the start and through fairly narrow spots for your feet, though the walls are wider for your body. The ceiling is generally tall.

• If you want to go all the way through from the entrance to the exit, you may wade through substantial water during one section near the end, though we were able to maneuver ourselves creatively to avoid it.

Our experience:

Laurel Cave is well-labeled and is accessed by taking a bridge across the creek, climbing over and down a rocky section, and then the large entrance is right there.

The entrance to Laurel Cave couldn’t be different than Horn Hollow Cave.  Whereas the latter was wet and low-ceilinged, Laurel Cave was tall and much drier.  The entrance to Laurel Cave is strewn with large and small boulders and rocks and requires hiking across them carefully. After getting around the first corner, those rocks quickly disappear. From there, the fairly lengthy cave is generally tall and tunnel-like with narrow walls.  But narrow as in a passageway, not anything that requires anything close to squeezing.  This cave was absolutely, stunningly beautiful.  The ceilings were far above and multi-tiered, having been eroded by water over the eons.  There were lots of ‘cave diamonds’ growths and other glittering water droplets that made the cave all shimmery in the light of our flashlights.  We spotted one bat nestled in a solo slumber in this cave.

The floor eventually got quite narrow with a spot just about the width of a shoe to tread on fairly flat ground that became increasingly wet until it had several inches pooled along the ground. The walls arched out from there, so it didn’t feel like a narrow space for our bodies, just our feet.  In spots where water was dripping with more force, there were deeper pools along the way.  Eventually, we got to a few areas where the water was quite a bit deeper – at least mid-calf if not knee height. 

Again, we had no interest in getting our shoes totally inundated with days of hiking left on our trip.  Mine were waterproof, to a point, but were only a few inches over my ankle and getting them inundated with water on the inside sounded like a bad idea.  So, we made do with some creative maneuvers, which included walking with one foot on either side of the water on the small, semi-slick ledges as well as putting our hands on one side to hold ourselves up as we balanced delicately along the other side.  Success!  We got to the end without falling in! 

At the cave exit, we had the choice to turn around and go back the way we came or find another way back to the car. Dustin’s vote was to go back through the cave, mine was to look for a path. Straddling slippery rocks to avoid water once was fine but I thought trying a second time was asking for trouble. Dustin spotted an unlabeled but clear path across the dry riverbank just outside of the cave exit that we followed. Eventually we were able to climb down to a parallel creek’s shore. We balanced on the river rocks to cross it, and got back to where we started right near our car. The route back from the cave was fairly short but required a little bit of guesswork on the right path to take since I don’t think it was truly an official path.

Adventure Cave Tours at Carter Caves State Park

In addition to the guided and self-guided tours described above, Carter Caves State Park offers some more intense caving experiences for those looking for an extra challenge. While we weighed doing one of these, once we read the description, it was a clear ‘nope!’ for us. I’ll provide some basic information here for those interested and recommend you check out the latest info from the park for availability and times.

bat cave “walking” excursion

This is the only tour through Bat Cave so we seriously considered doing it . . . at first. The tour is 2.5 hours in length, is “fairly strenuous” with about 2 miles of walking and a 40 yard “duck walk” along with slick surfaces, muddy water up the knees, in typical cave temperatures (50-60 degrees). On the plus side, there is no crawling on this tour. Individuals on the tour are provided a helmet with a headlamp and are required to wear closed-toe shoes. Hilariously, the park brochure indicates that “crocs are not acceptable as closed-to shoes”. I feel like I can imagine the argument that led to them including that statement. If it weren’t for the water - cold, muddy, up to the knees, of all things, I’d be up for this. The current cost of this tour is $20 as of May 2024. Individuals must be 8 year or older and those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

“Next level” adventure tours

Remember how the Bat Cave doesn’t require crawling? If crawling is your thing, this is your category of tour! These tours are available by appointment only and require a minimum of 10 people. It sounds like they may visit a variety of different caves and crawl into their smaller confines. From the park’s brochure: “you’ll spend most of your time low to the ground”. Keep in mind, this ground is not pillowy soft. This would never be on my to do list but we’re all into different things!

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Check out other posts in this trip series:

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]]>Exploring Guided and Self-Guided Caves at Carter Caves State Park in Eastern KentuckyAdventures in TravelSeries: Carter CavesKentuckyLindseySat, 29 Jun 2024 20:46:20 +0000https://www.tomakemuchoftime.com/blog/cartercavesday45b4bc9977e3c3a56aff07b01:5b4bca68aa4a9974b247cd7d:665b8159d100813e7391eb1e

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UPDATED: 10/14/2025

Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

This is the fourth post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

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On our fourth day at Carter Caves State Park, we hiked the longest hiking trail at the park - Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (“4 Cs Trail"), though we amended our route a bit to avoid doubling back on a shared section of the trail with Three Bridges Trail. We created an equally long hike, clocking in at 8.5 miles. We also had an unexpected situation with one of our pups that ended well but was not exactly how we wanted to end our trip. More on that below! All in, this we walked about 12 miles according to my Garmin tracker.    

If you just want to skip to our adventure, scroll on; if you’re looking for some packing tips, here are our top gear recommendations for this trip. You can view more recommendations on our Ultimate Guide to Hiking Gear.

• Comfortable hiking clothes - Our favorite options all come from REI. My favorite pants are prAna Halle and these are my favorite lightweight hiking t-shirts. Dustin has a couple of pairs of pants from prAna and the REI brand.

• Light-weight raincoat - if there's a chance of rain, you won't regret bringing a lightweight waterproof jacket with you. My favorite is this GORE-TEX jacket, and it has seen many damp trails!

• Hiking boots - Our current favorite brand is Oboz. Dustin has their Sawtooth model, and I have the Sapphire.

• Hydration backpack - unless you are going for a very short hike, bringing water is a must. Dustin has a very old Camelbak circa 2000, and I have a new-ish one from Gregory that I have used on multiple hiking trips and love. While the Gregory Sula 16 is not currently available, here are some other options. We each have a 3-liter water bladder.

• Headlight style flashlight - A headlight, like this one from REI that we each use, was a must for the self-guided cave tours. I’d also recommend bringing a small, bright hand-held for greater versatility.

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Day 4: Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (4 Cs Trail) and an unexpected dog adventure

hiking carter caves cross country trail at carter caves

We saved our long hike for our last day.  This trek was 8.5 miles, which took us 4.5 hours.  This was predominantly the Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (also called “4 Cs Trail”), though because part of it doubles with the Three Bridges Trail, which we had already done, we amended the trip a tad.

The 4 Cs Trail has a clear warning sign before hikers take off on it, indicating its length, the fact that it covers rocky and hilly terrain, and that it’s in the backcountry, which basically means you’ll mostly be on your own with few, if any, other hikers.  And it indicated that hikers should allow 6 hours for the hike.  We expected it would take us about 4.5 hours based on our prior knowledge of our pace, and we came in just around that  It is definitely smart to allow the full 6 hours before dark to be safe.  Our trail map also showed that there’s a section of the path that may be impassable during high water.  Since there was no way to know if that was its current state, though we doubted it, we decided to begin our hike near that spot; otherwise, we would have risked being 7 miles in and having to turn around.  What the sign didn’t say is that you should avoid this hike if there is rain on the horizon. I’d add that to the mix. We crossed a lot of dry creek beds that we could tell end up with raging water during storms. Beyond the fact that they could become filled with water, crossing wet, slippery rocks, is really risky.

First, a note on safety.  While this isn’t the first lengthy, backcountry trail we have taken, it’s still a pretty new thing for us.  For the first time, we decided to make a family member aware of our plans, announce our start time and estimated completion time, and then let them know when we were safely done.  While other backcountry hiking we’ve done had us park at the trailhead, which would have been a sign to someone at some point that we hadn’t returned, in this case, people hike from all sorts of parking spots, and a car sitting at the Lodge would have told no one anything at all.  We also made sure to bring our hydration packs (hiking backpacks with water bladders), snacks, and warm apparel.

Our route: we parked at the Lodge and took the Three Bridges Trail for half a mile until we met up with the 4 Cs Trail.  Fairly early on, we crossed the first of two suspension bridges, and then we came to the area that can be submerged when the water in the lake is high.  Even without that issue, there were still slick rocks to maneuver over and a bit of a question in our minds as to where the trail went, though we could see blazing on the opposite bank.  Other than that spot, this trail was really well marked and easy to follow.  We passed through a meadow filled with pretty wildflowers and tall grasses that were not at all mowed.  Around this time we stopped to pick multiple ticks off ourselves and continued to check for ticks during the remainder of the hike, though the tall grasses seemed to be the main culprit.  The knoll overlooks the lake, and there was a man on a boat doing some early morning fishing.  Beyond him, we wouldn’t see anyone else for about three hours.  From there, the trail disappeared back into the woods and climbed to the ridge of the hills on the other side of the lake. 

There are two by-permit-only backcountry camping sites on this trail, and the first one, called Johnson Homeplace, was up on the ridge.  There was a platform for a tent, and behind the spot was a shallow, dark cave.  I’m not sure I’d love camping with that right there personally, but otherwise, it looked like a nice spot!  With occasional ups and downs that are typically of hilly terrain, much of this part of the trail was pretty constant and enjoyable.  We also had a beautiful morning for the hike – late May, upper 50 degree temps, expected to rise to the mid 60s by the end of our hike.

The second suspension bridge was really cool.  It was quite a bit longer and so sagged in the middle and bounced around a lot with footsteps.  It wasn’t too high off the ground but probably not something those with a fear of heights would particularly enjoy.  It was suspended over a moderate sized body of water.  Just a bit further on, we came across the second backcountry tent camping spot, which appeared to have a roofed shelter.

This trail is also home to Shangra La Arch, yet another of the natural arches in the park.  In this case, the trail goes right through the middle of it.  The front of the arch looks like the other arches, and then as you go further in, it becomes more shale-like, and the trail curves into a circular area, surrounded by shale.  To get out, there is a tall, steep staircase (halfway between a staircase and a ladder).  The entire trail portion that goes through the arch is rocky, and there are very clear bright orange arrows on rocks directing hikers where to go.

We’ve decided we’re not fans of multi-use trails where people are actually using them with horses.  For the next segment of the hike, the 4 Cs Trail shared the route with the Kiser Hollow Trail, an 8+ mile multi-use (horses, bikes, hikers) trail.  While they didn’t overlap for long, there were huge muddy sections where the ground was torn up from the horses.  While there were very clear signs and fences to prevent people from taking horses on the neighboring trails, at least one person didn’t follow those rules.  In fact, we could see a person had jumped horse over the fence to access one of them. Horseshoe prints don’t lie, people!  The rest of the trail from here back to the Welcome Center was mostly up and downhill on a ridge.  We enjoyed a wildflower meadow with a few playful butterflies and had a few more dried creek crossings (there were so many on this trail that we didn’t even try to count them).

From the Welcome Center, we crossed uphill near Saltpeter Cave to catch back up with the Three Bridges Trail, which over the course of about a mile, got us back up to the Lodge. This is the section where we veered off from the main trail, which would have run alongside a different part of the Three Bridges Trail.  For those who wanted to do the entire trail as it is intended, the best way to do it theoretically would be to start at the Welcome Center for direct trail access; however, I really do think starting where we did was smart to see whether the potentially impassable section was in fact impassable.  The trail had a lot of poison ivy along it – just little plants here and there – and, as I said before, a decent number of ticks in the earlier part of the trail.  It was on this trail that I finally learned to spot poison ivy.  What can I say?  I’ve semi-tried but hadn’t really felt the need to know what to look for until this trip.

We caught a late lunch at Tierney’s Cavern, both getting club sandwiches for the second day running, and headed back to the cabin to shower. 

 an evening dog adventure

As with any story involving a dog, my first question is whether it ends well. So, I’ll start by saying this one does. It is not particularly traumatic but just gross, unpleasant, and not at all the way we wanted to spend our final evening of our trip!

As you may know by now, we have three Labrador Retrievers (at our peak, we had 4, but alas they do not live forever). Our two yellow Labs have never eaten anything that caused them any issues, but our two chocolate Labs (biological sisters), clearly have a gene to eat things they shouldn’t. Tara has had one stomach surgery to remove a rope toy she found at a campsite, and Gretchen has had not one but two stomach surgeries to remove things she ingested that she shouldn’t have.

So it’s probably clear to you who our biggest problem child is and who is the star of this story: Gretchen. I won’t name names but a trashcan ended up on the floor, and we caught Gretchen face deep in it and could tell something was missing that wouldn’t necessarily travel through her system on its own. We did some Googling and found mixed info about whether the dog would pass the object okay or whether it could get stuck and require surgery, in which case getting the dog to vomit it up quickly was the better route.

So, we called our vet back home, just a few minutes before their closing time. They have cared for all our dogs and are fantastic. The vet recommended we take Gretchen to the 24-hour emergency vet to induce vomiting, only we were hours away. So, they guided us on the home remedy version of this: having the dog drink a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to change the acidity of their stomach and induce vomiting. (I shouldn’t have to say this, but for anyone who needs it, please consult your own vet before attempting anything like this on your pet.)

Luckily there was a Walgreens in the town of Olive Hill, 20 minutes away, that would be open a few more hours, so we popped over there, acquired a syringe to administer the hydrogen peroxide and then force fed it to Gretchen, who clearly didn’t enjoy it but was absolutely a good spot and didn’t fight it (much).

The vet said we needed to do a round of 3 tablespoons based on her weight and the max they recommend, wait 15 minutes, and if that didn’t work, do a second round. Because the syringe only held one teaspoon, poor Gretchen had to be force-fed 9 teaspoons (which equals 3 tablespoons for the non-chefs among you) of hydrogen peroxide and had to undergo the same after 15 minutes when the first effort wasn’t fruitful. It took probably another 8 minutes before the hydrogen peroxide worked its magic and then voila, out came the contraband. Later in the evening when we were sure Gretchen’s stomach was settled, she got a second dinner. If you know Labs, they love food, so it’s possible if Gretchen were writing this story, she’d be telling it as a total boon.

On the plus side, we’ve added an additional dog parent experience to our dog resume, should we ever need it again.

Yes, that is the end to our trip. Like I said, unexpected and not how we wanted to end it dealing with a dog emergency instead of a relaxing evening. Dustin did manage to re-light the remaining logs in the fireplace so we had a shorter peaceful evening before turning out the lights.

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]]>4 Days at Carter Caves State Park in Eastern Kentucky - Day 4