Hike the Rock Castle Gorge Trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway

81 Tent Sites| 28 RV sites| 72 Picnic Sites

Rocky Knob Campground has easy access to Rockcastle Gorge and is just nine miles from Mabry Mill historic site.

Reservations can be made for portions of this campground.

Backcountry camping is permitted at the designated site in Rock Castle Gorge. A permit is required and can be obtained for any time of the year.

NOTE:  Rocky Knob’s campground usually opens in May.

Along the Rock Castle Gorge Trail 

We parked our cars right outside the Rocky Knob campground, just beyond the entry, to start the hike.

Directly across the Parkway from the campground entrance, there’s a “squeeze” stile leading into a field.  This is to keep the cows from wandering off, so don’t open any gates!

(The cows currently grazing alongside the road in Rocky Knob are part of a longstanding program of agricultural leases with the Park Service.)

You’ll see some trail signs, so you’ll know you’re in the right place 🙂

After crossing through, head left (following the green-blazes) through the grassy fields.  You’ll descend this hillside, and pretty quickly find yourself heading into the woods.

From the campground, the trail descends over 1,000 ft in 3 miles, passing through a cove hardwood forest of oaks, hickories, tulip trees, basswoods, maples, magnolias and a stand of bigtooth aspens.

 Next, we followed an old fire road that paralleled Rock Castle Creek, so the trail was wide and mostly level.

Within .5 mile, the road passes a back-country campground on the site of a former Civilian Conservation Corps complex. (You can camp there with a permit.)

Continuing along the road, you’ll come to a large two-story white house on the left, known as the “Austin/Conner House”. 

The house is privately owned, and is not open to the public.

Unlike many structures you see along hiking trails, this one looks like it’s in pretty good shape.

John W. Austin, Jr. bought the property in 1954 from the Mac Conner heirs, renaming it “the Austin/Conner House” or just “the Austin House.”

After steadily climbing beyond the Austin/Conner house, there are excellent views of the creek, 100 ft below.

For a while, the return climb doesn’t seem all that bad — a gradual rise up and above a small stream.

You’ll see Lethia Spring to your left as you cross a bridge at the headwaters of Rock Castle Creek,  at the edge of what used to be Lethia Boyd’s property.

It became a landmark in the Gorge because when residents saw the Spring, they knew they were getting closer to the rim.

Up ahead, the climb becomes harder to ignore, scratching along rock ledges on a sometimes eroded footpath. (The Rock Castle Gorge Trail gains 875 feet in the next 1.5 miles.)

The views that open to your right and behind as you scramble along are breathtaking — and worth stopping to take a breath to see.

Turn right at the trail junction where the trail passes through a hardwood forest.

After .5 mile, the trail goes through an extensive boulder field, some chunks as big as houses, known as the Bear (or Bare) Rocks.

Bear rocks is a geological feature created by the faulting and fast erosion of Gorge walls. Their block shape, large size, and general stacked-up configuration created pockets that residents called “caves.”

Some said that when bears lived in the area, they used the caves for their dens.

So, following tradition, we stopped at the Bear Rocks for a quick snack break 🙂

After the steep part, the trail makes several gradual rises back to the parkway.

Crossing the parkway leads to the Rocky Knob campground, but the Rock Castle Gorge Trail turns left for more climbing across a grassy hillside.

As you cross the grassy fields, you’ll see magnificent vistas west toward the lopsided hump of Buffalo Mountain and east toward the tamer hills and valleys of the Piedmont.

If you hike the trail in Summer, you’ll also find a field of blackberries on the grassy hilltop.

We ate the ripe berries right off the bushes as we went along, giving the bears some competition 🙂

The trail to Rocky Knob is narrow and steep, but you’ll be rewarded with outstanding views.

The Rocky Knob trail is a  loop, so just hop back on the green-blazed Rock Castle Gorge Trail when you come back down.

Follow the trail and finish your hike back by the Campground entrance where you started.

The Rocky Knob Picnic Area Trail (yellow blaze) is an easy loop and offers a pleasant walk for the entire family through a mature forest of large oaks, ashes, hickories, Fraser magnolias, hemlocks, and other native trees and shrubs.

It starts from the Picnic area or the Visitor Center.

Area Attractions

Mabry Mill

Mabry Mill is a watermill run by the National Park Service located at milepost 176.2, just 9 miles from Rocky Knob Visitors Center. 

Originally constructed in 1905 by Ed and Lizzie Mabry, the mill was in operation by 1908 and many people in the region brought their corn in to be ground.

The mill was lacking water power, which made it a “slow mill”.

But because of this, the mill couldn’t grind too fast and scorch the corn, which made the Mabry’s mill famous for producing some of the finest tasting corn meal in the region.

The National Park Service purchased the property from Lizzie after Ed Mabry passed away in 1938.

The mill was completely restored in 1942 and continues to educate visitors about the rich culture of Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

There’s also a short trail around the mill, connecting additional historical exhibits about life in rural Virginia.

The Gorge is around 2,700 acres of the 4,000 acre Rocky Knob Recreation Area.

It’s a steep and narrow ravine created by Rock Castle Creek cutting into the Blue Ridge Escarpment over the past 250 million years.

Walking through the dense forest of Rock Castle Gorge today, you could easily believe you’re the first one to walk in these woods.

But more than a century ago this land was filled with sounds of gristmills, sawmills, and wagon-loads of American chestnuts driving along Rock Castle Road.

Early settlers in the gorge found a virgin forest of huge hardwood trees, a fast-moving mountain stream that was one of the best trout streams in the region, plentiful wildlife, and fertile soil that would support the growth of apple trees and corn, among other things.

Through hard work and perseverance, the Gorge would eventually become home to hundreds of stalwart, rugged individuals who made their living primarily through subsistence farming, hunting wild game, foraging – especially Chestnuts and wild berries, and barter.

Over the years, the population of the gorge grew to 200+ residents spread among 30 families along the six miles of Rock Castle Creek.   

Eventually the Gorge was also home to two stores to purchase food and clothes, three mills, nearby churches, a schoolhouse, and even a distillery (prior to Prohibition).

But the Civil War was not kind to the Gorge, and the war’s aftermath wasn’t either. 

Though there were no slaves within the community, the War took many of the strong young men to fight – at least one of them fought for both sides – and many of them didn’t return.

After the war, renegade soldiers stole livestock and stored goods, causing some people to give up farming and seek work and find homes elsewhere.

Later, the Chestnut blight removed even that source of income, and more people left, taking work elsewhere in textile mills and coal mines.

By the time of the Parkway land purchase in the 1930’s, only 11-12 families remained in the Gorge.

Since then, with the help of the National Park Service, Nature has reclaimed the Gorge.

But even while we enjoy Nature on our hikes, we can still see reminders – and spare a thought –  for the hardy people who came before us and once made the Gorge their home.

NOTE:  I found much of this historic Gorge information – and more! –  in the Rock Castle Gorge Special History Study.