Grayson Highlands State Park felt completely different from anywhere else I’ve been. The open meadows, rolling hills, and wide mountain views made it feel so peaceful and almost unreal. Hiking through the grassy highlands with the wind blowing and clouds moving overhead was incredibly calming. Seeing the wild ponies roaming around was definitely a highlight for me they add so much character to the place and make the experience feel extra special. The trails were well-marked, and even the more challenging sections felt worth it because the scenery never stopped being beautiful.
Great state park overall. Beautiful scenery and hiking. Visitors centers and much throughout the park close last day in October, part of the road is still open and trails are open.
Off season camping at the equestrian campground. Main campground closed for upkeep. A few level sites. Better park in the huge parking area and walk down to check out your site/plan. Long way to back out of your too big to fit or make the turns to back in.
Lots of trails to choose from and wild ponies ?
Trails are easy to find and are marked very well.
Park rangers are very knowledgeable and very friendly.
Very dog friendly area.
The little museum is very neat and interesting.
There is a cabin close to the camp grounds which is very pretty area to go and see.
Look out is very beautiful.
The whole area is very beautiful.
Very nice to see the ponies.
Can't say enough about the area. Just very peaceful and beautiful.
Plan on bringing a packed lunch, drinks, and snacks. Very remote area.
We had a wonderful time hiking here. Very clean park, friendly staff. Clean restrooms available throughout the park. Some of the maps should be updated, especially over near Pinnacles. Overall, a great day with beautiful views!
Saw the docile ponies twice at Massie Gap. Walk up rhododendron trail to the AT. Beautiful views ups there! Then lucked out and saw more ponies later in the day when I went to the parking lot to use the toilet I spotted ponies right at the start of the trail!
The Twin Pinnacles Trail, at the Visitors Center, was great. Pretty easy with one particularly great view.
I went the first week of October and was suprised to see the massive parking lots 95percent empty! Fall foliage!
It boggles the mind that there isnt an outdoors bathroom at the Visitors Center. The parking lots there had to hold hundreds and hundreds of cars. There was a sign at the visitor center saying the bathroom was out of order and directed you to drive to a couple other places with vault toilets!
I walked a little bit of listening Rock Trail which is at the overlook by The visitor Center. You access it by the rock steps on a big boulder that's to the right of the overlook. Beautiful trail but rocky with ups and downs.
This is a really gorgeous park, probably the best I’ve been to in the southeast. I’m sure in the peak seasons it’s awful but I went pretty early on a week day and it was lovely.
Wild ponies! Great treks.
We visited during the Fall festival. They had various local made merchandise for sale. The highlight of the trail was coming close to the wild ponies.
Wonderful place to escape to nature. Great staff, interesting visitor center and gift shop. Twin Pinnacles is an easy hike with stunning views, and Massie Gap leads to Wilburn Ridge where there are massive rock outcroppings and the wild ponies. I got the feeling that I was on top of the world!
Incredible location for day hiking or more! Have always heard the rumor about the highland wild ponies and was pleased to have met a few on our hikes!
We hiked the Twin Pinnacle Trail, Rodadendron Trail to Horse Trail North (this trail had ponies), and the Cabin Creek Trail to the waterfall. Beautiful views and honestly one of the most stunning spacious areas I've been to recently. The Horse Trail North was my favorite and pictures cannot capture the immense beauty.
It was hard to find the Ponies, but we made it happen on the way back. Views at the top are wonderful. Definitely recommend to go there especially with kids.
Grayson Highlands State Park is one of the best State Parks that I have ever been to. Please come here to camp, stay in a Yurt and or spend the day walking along the trails. The historic wild ponies are here as a reminder of the uniqueness of the area. It is an experience that you may never forget.
Had a great day at Grayson Highlands today. Headed out on Rhododendron Trail and up to a part of the AT. First saw ponies on the AT portion. 4 grazing there. Then on the way back down there were more! Maybe 10 - 12 ponies - just hanging out living their best lives. It was a beautiful September afternoon in the mountains. Great seeing parents out in nature with their kiddos too. Highly recommend.
We decided to hike the park with our dog while visiting the area and were very impressed by the views and the animals we saw along the way. There are free roaming horses and cows that just mind their own business but there was a lot of poop along the trails, if that's a deterrent for you.
If I could do it again I would have stayed on the AT and just camped outside the park for free. That said the park itself is awesome. I mean wild ponies. What else do I have to say they have wild ponies*!
*Please don't feed wild animals please. It is bad for them and it is bad for everyone. The ponies are pretty docile generally but feeding them just to get a pic or feel some type of way is selfish and not what anyone should ever do to these or any wild animal. Please don't
The wild ponies at Grayson Highlands State Park were absolutely worth the hike! ? The views throughout the park are breathtaking—rolling mountains, open balds, and endless skies. ?⛰️
If you go, park at Massie Gap and take the Rhododendron Trail. It’s a beautiful, moderate hike and you’re very likely to see the ponies grazing along the way. Truly a one‑of‑a‑kind experience and a must‑visit spot in Virginia!
Went to eat lunch and see the horses. Nice little play ground. Clean restrooms. We were able to see the wild horses . The only down side is horse back riders were on the trail and ran the horses away. I don’t think they should be allowed on the trails that people go on to see the horses knowing this is the most popular trail to see them on. They also had a dog off leash with them. They said nothing to worry about but we all know animals have there moments. Better safe than sorry. Not to mention when I turned around one of the riders where right behind my wife. If the bourse would have gone astray, my with could have been hurt. No respect for us walking.
Beautiful park full of creeks, flowers, wildlife and beautiful views.
We saw horses and cows.
Reservations are highly recommended if you would like to do an overnight stay. Parking is more available for day trips.
The Creeks are shallow around the time of year, don't expect drinking water
This is such a wonderful state park! EVERY park rangers we met was so kind and helpful. The trails were all fairly well maintained and easy to find/navigate. Our favorite trail was Wilson Creek, but Twin Pinnacles was second. Well worth the trip down (especially if you get to see the ponies!)
We visited Grayson Highlands in Virginia while camping in North Carolina. We paid a $7.00 parking fee to enter the park. It seems like a lot, but the park is clean and well-maintained, and dogs are allowed on all the trails, which is important to us. There is one main road in the park with spurs to the horse camp and the Homestead Stage, a venue for music events, but we were there to see the wild ponies.
We hiked the most popular trail from Massie Gap to the park boundary via the Rhododendron Trail and the Appalachian Trail. The fresh pink and white Mountain Laurel blooming along the Rhododendron Trail was beautiful, as were the views of Wilburn Ridge and Mount Rogers. We were really excited to see wild ponies grazing in a wildflower meadow. Despite a short up-hill climb in the beginning, the 3-mile hike seemed easy.
After our hike, we visited the large visitor's center, which was large and choked full of park theme merchandise. It reminded me of a Cracker Barrel store but with a nature theme.
While we only explored one of many trails in the park, we were impressed by the scenery and look forward to returning there in the future.
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Wonderful park. Did a short hike on the little pinnacle trail and it was easy and gorgeous!! Next time will be looking for the horses! Update 5-2025 I saw a lot of horses/ponies!!!!! Gorgeous hike and trail. Amazing to see the wild ponies. I cried it was so beautiful.
The park is beautiful and so are the horses; only females. The park brings in a male horse, ever so often, for breeding only, then they sell them. The males get too aggressive with people. It was a long, upward hike, to the waterfall, but the hike to the horses, was easy.
So fun. Saw lots of ponies. Some parts are mildly difficult with children because it's rocky but all in all an easy beautiful hike suitable for most ages! Went up to Wilburn Ridge and back. Would totally do this again! Picnic tables by the parking lot, with ample parking that does fill up fast on weekends
An absolutely beautiful place to explore! This is such a huge park and you're able to kinda get away from folks, even on a busy day. The hike up is pretty rocky, but once you're past that and reach the spot where all the ponies like to roam, it gets a little less rocky. I would highly recommend visiting ✨?
We visited in early November 2024 on a Friday afternoon. This was our 25th Virginia State Park for the VA State Park Trail Quest.
We came here primarily to see the ponies as many do. We were hoping to stop by the visitor center but it looked like the road leading to it was closed and not sure if it was a thing where they closed for the day or if it was for the season. It was unfortunate we had to drive so far into the park to realize it was closed. We did see a ranger in a truck stopping at the closed gate and he mentioned that there was a shop at the front of the park at the main office but that they were packing up and getting ready to leave. We quickly drove ALL the way back to the front and pulled into the office parking lot. There were still cars there but the blinds were shut, doors locked and the sign said CLOSED even though the hours on the door stated 9-4PM and we were there at 3:05PM (took a picture).
We were very sad as we drove over an hour from Hungry Mother State Park where we were staying to check out the ponies and grad some merch for our Trail Quest collection. I decided to at least grab some photos of inside the shop through one of the unobstructed windows when I noticed movement in the back. I nicely waved at them just to say hi and surprisingly they came to the door and graciously let us in to quickly purchase merch. We were coming up to a holiday weekend and I guess they were trying to get out early which I understand but it would've been nice if that information was posted online or somewhere before we drove so far. We picked up a couple of pins and hiking medallions and proceeded to drive back to the back of the park to find the ponies.
Along the way we did stop at a large overlook on the right hand side. It had a couple of benches and a binocular station to look out. It was pretty cool sight but I think the sun had already set too far in the sky and a lot of the valley was in shadow.
Once we made it back to the back, there is a long parking lot at Massie Gap that is adjacent to a large field where the trailhead for the Rhododendron Trail begins. This is the place to stop if you're looking for the phones. There were maybe 4 other cars there and the park closes at sunset. We decided to do a quick hike knowing we were racing the sunset. There are gates so make sure they close behind you. The signs for the national forest area looks like it's seen better days as much of the text was faded almost into illegibility probably from direct sunlight. Be aware there is little to no cell signal (Verizon) while we were in this area or on the trail. We passed a few hikers coming back down and asked if they saw horses. They all confirmed they were less than a mile out. I want to saw it was closer to 0.5 mile before we ran into the ponies.
The hike itself wasn't too bad with a couple of washed out areas (probably hurricane Helene damage) but the views were amazing and the trail was different enough it kept our youngest very entertained. We soon came upon a horse and then 2 more. We didn't have a ton of time so we didn't want to go much further but our goal was accomplished. We didn't get too close but the horse wander right next to the trail and so we gladly took pictures. We saw further up the trail there were a couple of hikers petting the horse up there which we didn't think you were supposed to do.
We turned back around after spending maybe 10-15 mins observing the horses. We wanted to do so many of the other trails from that clearing. But we were afraid we would lose the light too quickly and we would need to get out.
100% would do again. We would drive out of our way to come back here. There were so many trail options. We did have Hurricane Helene come through a couple months prior so some trails were still closed. Our thoughts were to come back with our scout groups and do some backpacking. The weather was perfect while we were there.
Beautiful campgrounds and hiking trails, plus there are wild ponies! Much colder than the surrounding region due to its elevation. The camp hosts were lovely and there was a little country store with the essentials at the hickory ridge campground. We stayed in mid October and brought our dog.
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