As part of a long term idea, this past fall, we loaded up Laura’s Mazda and hit the road for Grayson Highlands State Park.
We’d been decades ago, backpacking. This time we’d be car camping—setting up basecamp in the park and then day hiking out.
To be clear, this was not the first time we’ve been car camping. But it would be the first time we’d it do without decade-plus old backpacking stuff.
The last time we went car, camping was a while ago. The old XJ had no problem hauling our backpacking kit.
Our new “Let’s Just Face It, We’re Going Car Camping” tent was a Kingdom 4 from REI. It affords us space to have a queen-sized cot with an air mattress.
Day packs and other bags slide under the cot, so we recover a good bit of room.
We packed meals for four days—some of those would be foiled by a surprise burn ban.
Zero internet access at camp. The closest place we could get a single was a few miles back toward the entrance.
If you absolutely, positively, have to check in. . . this overlook doesn’t suck.
I did a pretty good job of checking out and embracing the disconnect.
Hiking in the park was great. We hit some smaller trails with water features that first morning. Then another trail in the afternoon.
Laura hiked the sole right off her boot altogether.
We took that as an excuse to get out of the park. A close friend talked up the Virginia Creeper so much I think he’s getting a kickback on ticket sales.
That doesn’t mean he was wrong.
We enjoyed an extraordinarily scenic drive to Damascus, Virginia, where we landed at Sundog Outfitter. They set us up with bikes and then took us to the top of the trail, where we started our 19-mile descent.
A bit more hiking the next day heading out toward Mount Rogers, and then we broke down camp and headed home.
We're looking forward to more of this in 2020.