What is Grayson Highlands State Park?
Grayson Highlands is a 4,520-acre Virginia state park on U.S. 58 in western Grayson County, midway between Independence and Damascus and near Mount Rogers and Whitetop Mountain. Its entrance sits at 3,698 feet and Little Pinnacle at 5,089 feet. It gives year-round access to the Appalachian Trail, keeps wild ponies on its highland balds and holds nearly 10 miles of wild trout streams.
U.S. 58 between Independence and Damascus, reached from Hillsville Exit 14
Grayson Highlands State Park is on U.S. 58 midway between Independence and Damascus, at 829 Grayson Highland Ln., Mouth of Wilson. From Interstate 77, the Department of Conservation and Recreation starts its directions at the Hillsville exit:
From I-77, take Hillsville Exit 14 to U.S. 58. Travel west on U.S. 58, 40 miles to Volney. Turn left to stay on U.S. 58 and go eight miles to the park entrance.
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Grayson Highlands State Park
The park covers 4,520 acres, the figure DCR publishes for it. The entrance is at 3,698 feet, and Little Pinnacle, inside the park, reaches 5,089 feet. It sits near Mount Rogers and Whitetop Mountain, which DCR calls Virginia's two highest mountains, so this is high country reached by one U.S. route from the interstate.
Mount Rogers' height needs a careful reading. Grayson County's 2024 comprehensive plan calls it the highest peak in Virginia and then prints its height as 5,729 feet in one chapter and 5,728 feet in another, so no single figure is given here. The same plan counts 35 peaks over 4,000 feet in Grayson County.
Numbers like those invite a second question about private land at altitude. Whether height above sea level moves a property's price is a separate subject, taken up in whether elevation changes what a mountain home is worth.
Appalachian Trail access, a horse trail, and ponies that keep the balds from growing back
The park gives year-round access to two long-distance trails, the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail. Inside the park itself there are 18 hiking trails.
The wild ponies are there to do a job. DCR says they were brought into the park in 1974 to keep the highland balds from reforesting. A bald is open high ground; left alone, the woods would take it back, and grazing keeps it open. The Wilburn Ridge Pony Association manages the herd.
Grayson County also holds part of a very different state park along the New River, and the New River Trail answer covers it.
Wild trout water under state license rules, and no camping in the backcountry
Nearly 10 miles of wild trout streams lie within Grayson Highlands State Park, and DCR is direct about the rules there: "All required state fishing licenses and creel limits apply to fishing within the park."
That rule is worth stating plainly because Virginia's license law has a landowner exemption, and it is easy to stretch it too far. The exemption covers a landowner and certain family members within the boundaries of their own lands and inland waters, which a state park is not; how far it reaches on a private tract is answered in whether you can fish your own creek without a license.
For seasons and creel limits on the park's streams, read the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources' current regulations rather than a limit remembered from an earlier year.
Camping has a firm line as well. Backcountry camping is not allowed within the park. Current fees, hours, overnight options and trail closures are the park's to state and can change, so confirm them with Grayson Highlands State Park at 276-579-7092 before a trip.
Western Grayson, where the park and the recreation area were formed in the 1960s
Grayson County's comprehensive plan says Grayson Highlands State Park and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area were both formed in 1965 to 1966 from lands in western Grayson.
Much of the county around it is steep: the county's plan says over 60 percent of the land in Grayson has slopes in excess of 20 percent and calls steep slopes a building challenge.
Grayson County is zoned, unlike Carroll County next door, and a county zoning permit comes before a building permit. How that works, district by district, is in Grayson County zoning, and the county's offices sit beside the other localities on the six counties and the City of Galax page.
Grayson is also one of the two counties in a regional name, and what the Twin Counties are has its own short answer.
Looking at Grayson County ground on the U.S. 58 corridor toward the park?
Send the road or the tax map number, and Lowell will read the grade, the access and the county zoning permit questions before you commit to a tract out toward Grayson Highlands. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Is Grayson Highlands the same place as the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area?
No. Grayson County's comprehensive plan names them as two areas and says both were formed in 1965 to 1966 from lands in western Grayson. Grayson Highlands is the 4,520-acre Virginia state park that DCR describes near Mount Rogers and Whitetop Mountain. For the recreation area's own boundaries and rules, ask the agency that manages it rather than the state park.
Can I pitch a tent anywhere along the trails in Grayson Highlands?
No. Backcountry camping is not allowed within Grayson Highlands State Park. Where overnight stays are permitted, what they cost and when they are open are the park's to state, and those details change, so confirm current options with the park through the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation before you plan a night there.
Who looks after the wild ponies at Grayson Highlands?
The Wilburn Ridge Pony Association manages the herd. DCR says the ponies were introduced to the park in 1974 to keep the highland balds from reforesting, and it asks visitors not to approach or feed them. Questions about the herd itself are best taken to the park.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Grayson Highlands State Park (location, directions, acreage, elevations, trails, ponies, trout streams, camping) Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
- Comprehensive Plan 2024 (park formation, peaks, Mount Rogers, slopes) Grayson County, Virginia
- New River Trail State Park Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
- 29.1-301, exemptions from license requirements Code of Virginia
- E-911 (Carroll County, City of Galax and Grayson County) City of Galax
- Representing Carroll, Grayson and Galax Twin County Chamber of Commerce