Cabin Creek Spring

The Mount Rogers National Recreation Area (NRA) is part of both the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. The NRA covers over 140,000 acres of high mountain lands in southwest Virginia. The high country, the heart of the NRA, contains over 25,000 acres of the highest lands in Virginia – and the Mount Rogers NRA manages approximately 20,000 acres of the it (while the Grayson Highlands State Park manages the remaining 5,000 acres of high country).

On this hike, we started at Massie’s Gap and hiked the Appalachian Trail southbound to the Wilburn Ridge Trail. Massie’s Gap now requires parking reservations for overnight backpackers, so be sure to get them in advance. From here we climbed to 5542 feet at the top of the rocky Wilburn Ridge, then descended back to the Appalachian Trail at Rhododendron Gap. From the gap, we descended slightly through the valley to camp near a spring where there were outstanding views to the South and into North Carolina.