Grayson Highlands State Park.

A buddy and I were planning on heading down next week on a bouldering trip. I was curious to know the camping situation.

Is the campground open?
Is it cool to get there around midnight and set up?

Any other info would be great, Thanks!

Make sure to send Aaron Parlier a message. He authored the guidebook and most info (and is the admin) for the Grayson area here on MP and he generally has his finger on the pulse of Grayson, although I dont see him posting in the forums that often.

Went down there this time last year and most of the gates were still closed. It just adds longer approaches and less access. If you have the time just go to the new. You may not be able to camp there if the gates are closed as they were last year during spring break.

The stables campground is open for primitive camping from the 1st Friday in March through the end of April. The bath house is closed and there is no water available in the campground (no showers - sorry!), but you can fill up at the office. There is a portable toilet in the campground and the sites have power.

You can make reservations at the Customer Care Center at 800-933-7275, you can register at the office when you get to the park or if the office isn't staffed, you can pay in the honor safe at the campground. The contact station (the little building in the middle of the road) isn't staffed this time of year, but parking is included in your camping fees, so don't pay anything in the yellow envelopes.

Out-of-state camping fees are $23 +tax for the 1st night, $18 +tax for additional nights.

Virginia residents camping fees are $20 +tax for the 1st night, $15 +tax for additional nights.

Full service camping opens May 1.

I'm on duty this weekend, so if you don't see me Friday night, I'll be coming through the campground on Saturday morning.

DoNstamos - you may have gone to the main campground, Hickory Ridge, when you were here last year. That one will be closed until May 1. The stables campground, Chestnut Hollow, is the third road to the right, just past Massie Gap and the last turn before heading up to Listening Rock.

GHSP is open for access to primitive camping at the stables area. Chief Ranger Holland is working next weekend, and is she is one of the coolest people ever. Be sure to say hello to her, and if you have any questions about the park, boulders, and awesome things to do and see in the area she is the one to ask! It would be a good ides to call the park ahead of time during normal working hours just to check in.

How about snow cover?

Will there boulders be accessible?

There are plenty of boulders that are accessible if there's snow, but it looks like there isn't much, if any.

There's a webcam mount on the visitor's center, which can be viewed here.

help is there bathrooms and a bathhouse at grayson highlands campsite hickory ridge? how r they

Hunter, there are bathrooms and showers at the campground. The place is pretty nice!

Me and my wife are planning to go in the middle of September for a weekend.. we want to set up a base camp out of our truck and do some bouldering, mountain biking, and hiking. Is there a ideal spot we can park and set up camp for that?

You can park at the app trail head and hike down the app trail and just camp down there and it is much cheaper.

The campground in the park is a great base camp. It's nice, has bathrooms, water and good sites. The only challenge may be getting a spot on the weekend. They accept reservations in advance online and it's a good idea to make one.

Ok cool. We were also thinking about just parking at a overnight parking spot each night just to be in a different spot but I'll look at the camp sites as well

Hey folks, I just moved to the Mt. Rogers area for a job with the forest service, and I'm hoping to get many sessions in at Grayson. Would be happy to meet up with the locals if y'all will have me. Shoot me a message? Cheers!

Is there any lowkey van camping spot around the park? I found one on a fire road but its a ~20-30 minute drive. Anybody with the low key dirtbag beta? :) much respect and love to this beautiful wildnerness area :)

That's what I was looking for also but ended up just scheduling a camp spot

5.samadhi,

In the park itself there is not any low key van camping spots unfortunately. The rangers of GHSP are amazing but absolutely enforce the camping and backpacking regulations. Outside of the park there are several options and many National Forest areas that would work well. I would highly advise looking up some of the surrounding Nat Forest areas for van locations. Look toward Damascus or Troutdale areas which aren't very far at all.