Grayson Highlands Camping

This weekend, Sandy and I headed to Grayson Highlands for a weekend of camping, hiking, and fun in the Virginia Mountains. We left Friday in the late morning and stopped in Sparta for lunch, arriving at the park just before 3. We checked in and set up camp at the group site and while waiting for the others to arrive, we did a short hike. We parked at the Massie Gap parking area and headed down to the Cabin Creek Trail. We spotted some beautiful flame azaleas headed down the trail. At the junction, we forked to the right and headed down to Cabin Creek.

A sign indicated the trail continued to the left and a falls overlook was to the right. There wasn't much of a trail heading to the right, more of a climb over rocks and bushwhacking through thick vegetation. Foliage and branches blocked most of the views of the creek and falls, but we did manage to get out onto some rocks in the creek to get some pictures. We continued up for a while, bushwhacking until it got too thick to continue, then headed back down to the trail and continued along the creek. The main falls, a pretty little 25' cascade that splits into three, is about midway down the trail. But even here, it required a bit of careful planning to rock-hop and bushwhack to get to a good spot for a photo of the falls and creek. We finished up the loop and made the climb back up and to Massie Gap. Before heading back to camp, we left the park to stop at a gas station and pick up some last-minute supplied and stopped at Sugarlands Overlook on the way back for gorgeous views, then returned to the campsite.

By now, most of the rest of the group had arrived; we cooked dinner on the campfire, then went to bed. We would need as much rest as we could get for the challenging hike the next day.