Grayson Highlands and Mt Rogers Recreation Area
10/4 - 10/6/25 (2 nights)
The weather was nice, there was no soccer and my wife was taking the oldest kid on a trip. So, I took the youngest two kids on a short backpacking trip to VA.
We started at the Elk Garden Trailhead, it was completely packed, not surprising for a beautiful Saturday in the fall. I was hoping it was mostly day hikers, but the area I planned on camping at was completely packed with tents. I guess that everyone else decided to take advantage of the nice weather.
Woke up to a lot of fog that came and went as we had breakfast but burned off and left a great day.
Everything was covered with dew in the morning
A moment of sunshine ...
... and then the fog came back.
The wild ponies were all over the meadow
My daughter thought their eyelashes looked very soft
We hiked along Wilburn Ridge and then down to the State Park. I had thoughts of camping near Stone Mountain but we were cruising along and making good time, so it felt way to early to stop for the night. We continued on towards Scales with the thought of camping near there, but there were a couple cows in the area and made my daughter nervous. No problem, up to the Crest Trail, but the spring was dry, so keep walking. We ended up right where we started after carrying full packs for the whole day. I need to update on my kids hiking ability because this would have been a very difficult day a couple years ago and now it was an easy 10ish miles with 1200' of elevation up and down. A little harder than it needed to be but still a great day.
Last day, woke up to overcast skies, time to head for the car
The sun came out for the last hour of our hike
And then an easy drive home and back to school/work the next day.
