Grayson Highlands State Park

Last week we took a family vacation to southwest Virginia and Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. We had a fun week hiking and spending time together. Caleb was a great traveler and he really enjoyed being in the backpack carrier for the hikes.

Our first stop was in Abingdon, Virginia to visit Grayson Highlands State Park, home of the tallest peak in Virginia - Mount Rogers at 5,728 feet. Grayson Highlands Park, as its name suggests, sits at over 4,000 ft elevation. There was absolutely no signage along the 1 hour drive to the park until we turned into it...our kind of place! We set out to do the 8 mile Mount Rogers hike on Monday morning. It was a cooler (mid 60's) and overcast day, which was perfect hiking conditions. 

We hiked through open meadows, forest, and rocky paths, it was beautiful with the spring flowers blooming. The park is known for their wild ponies and we got an up close and personal look and feel of them.

Halfway through the hike, it was getting very sunny and hot, so we decided it was best to turn around. It was a very exposed trail, and we didn't want our little hiker to get too much sun on our first day into the trip. It would have helped if he wore hats, but he gets so upset when we put one one these days. We were able to get the hat on once he fell asleep -:).

On our way home, we drove through a really cool town called Damascus, VA, and we stopped there for lunch and relaxed in the park. The town had a lot of character and it had a little river running through it and a long bike path called the Virginia Creeper Trail that went into NC. It's only a few hours from home, so we plan to get back again for a bike ride with the kids in the future. Next stop....Smoky Mountains!