Grayson Highlands State Park- Mouth of Wilson, Virginia - State/Provincial Parks on Waymarking.com

The road into Grayson takes hikers to a parking lot at Massie Gap that's 4,200 feet above sea level—a good running start at the 5,729-foot peak of Mount Rogers. But this windswept, often fog-shrouded piece of the Blue Ridge Highlands is far more than just an entrance to the federal recreation area.

The 4,935-acre Grayson Highlands State Park showcases the natural beauty of waterfalls, spruce-fir forests, igneous rock outcroppings, native trout streams, rugged mountains, and high alpine meadows with panoramic vistas of valleys below. A community of hardy wildflowers, shrubs, insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals that can withstand the harsh conditions of the open highlands have adapted to life in the alpine meadows.

As beautiful as the highlands of Grayson are, the landscape's original beauty has been altered. At one time, every fourth tree in the mountains was a chestnut, but blight killed all the massive chestnut trees in the early 1900s. After the blight, the mighty trees' naked and deathly gray skeletons stood 120 feet high, anchored by a trunk 10 feet in diameter, until loggers hauled out every available tree for its valuable, decay-resistant wood. About the same time, logging and fires decimated the virgin stands of other forest species. They, too, had been untouched by ax or saw and were of impressive size and variety.

It took only 12 years for the logging companies to clear the highest elevations of magnificent virgin red spruce, hemlock, and Fraser fir. At Massie Gap [Fig. 33(7)] in Grayson Highlands State Park, 1 acre of giant red spruce trees produced an impressive yield of 100,000 board feet of lumber—enough to build 30 average-size houses.

Foresters say that trees in the Grayson Highlands area today may be no more than one-third the size of those in the original virgin forests. But trees (with the exception of American chestnuts, still beset by blight) renew themselves. They come back in time. After decades of protection, the forests of Grayson Highlands are striking in both size and diversity. If not disturbed, eventually the park will support another tall evergreen forest. However, the severe climate, strong winds, and loss of soil following logging operations make for a slow recovery.

Because of extreme changes in elevation (from 3,698 feet at the park entrance to 5,089 feet at the feet of Little Pinnacle), the predominant forests in Grayson Highlands State Park change from northern hardwood (including yellow birch, sugar maple, American mountain-ash, American beech, and northern red oak) to spruce and fir. From a distance, Mount Rogers stands out not just for its height but also because it has a dark cap. The color is traceable to the dark green of the spruce-fir forest, a northern forest community that grows only at high elevations this far south. Mount Rogers and neighboring Whitetop Mountain are visible from several park trails. Whitetop is so named because, even after valley snows melt, the 5,540-foot-tall bald peak is still visibly white. On a clear day, the Blue Ridge Parkway, a federal mountain highway, is visible some 70 miles to the south. The parkway follows the backbone of the Blue Ridge range through Virginia and North Carolina (see Blue Ridge Parkway).

Grayson Highlands State Park is the only park in Virginia to provide a special area for visitors to bring and stable their own horses. The area is also popular with winter campers, cross-country skiers, trout anglers, deer and turkey hunters, and scientists who come to examine the unusual high-mountain bogs of Grayson.

The picnic area is next to a rebuilt homestead site, complete with two log cabins, a springhouse, and a cane mill. Like other mountains in the Blue Ridge range, the peaks of Grayson Highlands are rounded, not sharp—the result of eons of wear by wind, rain, and melting snow. The high peaks in this area, however, are composed of rhyolite, a volcanic rock almost as hard as granite. That is why they eroded slower than surrounding mountains and why they remain today the highest cluster of peaks in Virginia.

Park Type: Overnight Activities: Picnic areas, camping sites (96 total), hiking (Guided tours available), bicycle and horse trails. Trout fishing (ten miles of accessable streams), Vistors Center with museum and gift shop. Festivals and local events include: Park Festivals (in picnic area) Wayne Henderson Festival, Grayson Highlands SP, third Saturday in June; visit www.waynehenderson.org for details Grayson Highlands Fall Festival, last full weekend in September Regional Events Whitetop Moutain Maple Festival, fourth Saturday in March, Mt. Rogers Fire Department, (276) 388-3422, mrfds@nax.net Fairview Ruritan’s Fiddlers Convention, fourth Saturday in March Moutain Do Triathlon, third Saturday in April, Hungry Mother State Park, (276) 783-3161 Naturalists’ Rally, Mt. Rogers, May 11-12, Konnarock, Va. Appalachian Trail Day, third week in May, toll-free 1-888-595-2453, Damascus, Va. Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival, third Sunday in May (Mt. Rogers Fire Department), (276) 388-3422, mrfds@nax.net Highlands Jazz Festival, first weekend in June, Abingdon, Va., 1-800-435-3440 Chautauqua Festival, third and fourth weekend in June, Elizabeth Brown Park in Wytheville, Va., (276) 228-6855 Grayson County Fiddlers Convention, fourth Saturday in June, Elk Creek Community Virginia Highlands Festival, July - August, Abingdon, Va., (276) 676-2282 Independence Day Celebration, July 4, Independence, Va., (276) 773-9991 Hungry Mother Arts and Crafts Festival, third weekend in July, Hungry Mother State Park, (276) 783-3161 Fairview Ruritan’s Bluegrass Festival, fourth Saturday in July Old Fiddlers' Convention, second week in August, Felts Park in Galax, Va., (276) 238-8130 New River Festival, third Saturday, September, (276) 744-7861 Fries Fiddlers Convention, third Saturday, August, (276) 744-2141 Labor Day Weekend, Hillsville Gun Show and Flea Market in Hillsville, Va., (276) 728-2128 Baywood Fall Festival, first Saturday in October, (276) 236-9177 Mountain Foliage Festival, second Saturday in October, Independence, Va., (276) 773-9991 Whitetop Mountain Molasses Festival, second Sunday in October, (276) 388-3422, mrfds@nax.net Fees: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/documents/feesadmprk.pdf Park Fees: Not listed Background: Grayson Highlands, originally named Mount Rogers State Park, was established in 1965. The community overwhelmingly supported this park, beginning with a fund-raising effort for land acquisition and continuing with the donation of items on exhibit in the visitor center. Many areas in the park are named after early settlers. Massie Gap takes its name from Lee Massey, who lived in the gap with his wife and five children in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At that time, the present park area was thinly settled by people who managed to live off the land. They made, grew or gathered most of their necessities. Date Established?: 1965 Link to Park: [Web Link] Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed

Visit Instructions:
To log a visit to a waymark in this category, please include the following ...
1. A picture you took at the park.
2. Your favorite activity at the park.
3. How do you like the park.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   05/27/2019 ICRRfan visited it 08/27/2018 Manville Possum visited it 07/10/2016 12IrishGlaciers visited it 03/06/2010 ellishagerman visited it

View all visits/logs