Trek along Stock Creek to see the 220-year-old Carter Cabin. See the Natural Tunnel, an immense passageway through which Stock Creek flows. NATURAL TUNNEL STATE PARK: 1.8 miles Nearest Town: Duffield Note the memorial at Cumberland Gap, then backtrack and join the Tennessee Road Trail to see an intact Newlee Iron Furnace that operated from the 1820s to the 1880s. Start at the Cumberland Gap Visitor Information Center parking area then take the Wilderness Road Trail up to Gap Cave and restored Cumberland Gap of Daniel Boone fame. In other words, there’s enough trails in these parts to keep visitors busy for a lifetime.ĬUMBERLAND GAP & IRON FURNACE: 1.8 mile Nearest Town: Ewing Still other state forests and other entities have paths leading to vistas, deep woods, and geological wonders. Virginia State park paths lead to rocks formations and highland meadows. The Jefferson National Forests is laced with still more trails rolling atop ridges, along creeks, and to waterfalls. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park presents paths to views, historical spots, and backcountry campsites. A full 110 miles of the Appalachian Trail roll through Far Southwest Virginia, adding long-distance hiking opportunities. Thousands of miles of hiking trails course through the region, with over 400 miles in Mount Rogers National Recreation Area alone. Find your favorite activities to cobble together a Southwest Virginia adventure vacation to remember. The following is an activity guide for Far Southwest Virginia with suggested hikes, bicycle trips, paddles, backpacking and camping destinations, and even OHV routes. Smaller mountain-bordered waters are found at Hungry Mother State Park, High Knob Lake, and Bark Camp Lake. Pound Lake and Flannagan Reservoir are the two largest highland tarns, and there is the Virginia portion of mighty South Holston Lake. We can’t forget the lakes of the region, highland-rimmed reservoirs that meld aquatic and montane scenery into one spellbinding picture. The upper forks of the Holston see their share of paddlers and the Russell Fork provides whitewater to challenge the best paddlers. The Clinch River is one of America’s most biologically diverse waterways and is now being paddled throughout its length through Virginia. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park stands tall, and numerous Virginia state parks from Breaks Interstate Park, known as the “Grand Canyon of the South”, to the intriguing Natural Tunnel State Park to lofty Grayson Highlands State Park preserve special places where we can seek outdoor recreation.Īnd then there are the rivers – the North Fork Holston River is an erroneously overlooked first-rate fishing and floating stream. Recreation destinations here are dominated by the vast lands of Mount Rogers National Recreation Area and the Jefferson National Forest. The people of the region enhance the outdoor forests, parks, and preserves of Far Southwest Virginia. In that respect, the residents of Far Southwest Virginia are very friendly and welcoming - there to help you make the most of your forays into their region. It has Virginia’s wildest whitewater, some the state’s most unusual rock formations, and the state’s closest ties to the culture of Appalachia. It is a land of superlatives, harboring Virginia’s highest point – Mount Rogers – and Virginia’s most westerly point at Cumberland Gap. Far Southwest Virginia is the narrow swath of land projecting west like an arrowhead (or spearhead as it is also called), bordered by Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina. The opportunities are there, whether it be hiking to the highest point in the state, pedaling rugged mountain bike trails or picturesque rail trails, riding your OHV past overlooks and streams, backpacking remote highland pathways, floating bucolic, relaxing rivers and lakes, kayaking down raucous whitewater streams, or pitching your tent in an eye-pleasing wooded locale.īefore we go any farther, where exactly is Far Southwest Virginia? It is the region of Virginia west of I-77 as it cuts north-south through Virginia between West Virginia and North Carolina. Further from the population centers of the Eastern Seaboard, Southwest Virginia is a mountainous – and very beautiful – part of the state that begs to be explored and enjoyed by outdoor lovers.
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