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Cumberland Gap: Wilderness Road Campground
With the bulk of the things-to-do-and-see items covered in this series of posts on Cumberland Gap NHP, I thought I’d switch gears into review mode. And so my granola-munching peeps, here are my thoughts on the Wilderness Road Campground at Cumberland Gap.
The obligatory sign photo…that also happened to hold a geocache treasure.
Overview…
This is a cozy little campground nestled amongst a wonderful landscape of tall trees and scenic mountains. It’s just off of Highway 58 in the far-west recesses of Virginia. The closest town is the microscopic-but-charming Cumberland Gap, TN. For stocking up on supplies however, you’re best bet is to visit nearby Middleboro, KY on the other side of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the highlights of this campground is the easy access to hiking trails as well as some nature trails that had yours truly all aflutter. One of the other features I loved was the ampitheater where Fred played happily for quite awhile, lost in his imagination. There weren’t any programs happening during our visit but I suspect that this is put to good use during heavier visitation times.
The back part of the campsite at Wilderness Road. Somehow I missed taking a shot of the front part with the slope of doom.
The Sites…
There are electric and non-electric sites but no water hookups. There are water sources you can use to fill up but be prepared to portage your containers a little ways, depending upon which site you choose.
One of Fred and George’s highlights was making “geek-henge” out of the fire logs. Yeah, my boys let their geek flags fly.
We opted for a non-electric site because we really don’t need electric to get by with our minimal tent-camping set up. (Except when all six of your camera batteries are dead and your car-adapter fails you. Can you say photographer/blogger minor cardiac event? I knew you could.) The other factor in choosing non-electric is that the electric sites all seemed to have paved parking pads for RVs and pop-ups. Great for them…not so great for us.
So we pitched on a fairly level site that had a good bit of breathing room for the kids to romp without getting tangled in the abundant poison ivy. I say fairly level because we couldn’t find one perfectly level. Unlike our RV/Popup counterparts, tents aren’t equipped with nifty leveling feet to even things out artificially so we have to work with what we’ve got… and if you’ve ever slept in a tent on a slope, you’ll understand why that’s important. Let’s just say it’s not quite the right kind of cozy to have all five tent occupants piled up in heap at the foot of the tent in the middle of the night for three nights running. Yeah, not the most restful of our camping adventures.
At any rate, we ended up pitching on the gravel pad meant for vehicles rather than the lumpy, muddy, poorly drained area in the middle of the site. With the amount of rain forecast for our visit, we were placing our bets on the best drainage…and that’s gravel, even if it’s very large, pointy gravel in this case.
Fred making use of the empty ampitheater.
The sites were equipped with newer six-foot plastic (as opposed to concrete or wood) picnic tables which made for easy drying off in the inclement weather we were in initially. Now, I could probably write an entire post on the virtues of varying table construction at campgrounds, but I won’t belabor the issue lest you begin to think of me as a camping princess.
Anyway…another nice little perk of our particular site was the bear box which is great when you’re camping out of a small car. Not all the sites had them though and it was indeed one of the reasons we picked this site as our home for a few nights.
The facilities…
I have to give the restroom facilities very high marks. They looked relatively new and were clean, standard issue campground lavatories. Where they excelled was in the shower arena though. Instead of shower stalls in the restrooms, they built them as individual stalls (actually mini-rooms) separate from the sinks & toilets. Faboo my friends!
Why is this so revolutionary? Well, typically campgrounds with showers have a couple of stalls in each restroom i.e. the men’s and women’s. But by separating the showers from the potties, they’ve maximized the use those facilities will get since they’ve removed the gender-barrier. Now I don’t know if this is something that’s happening in other parks, but it’s certainly not something I’ve seen before and I hope Georgia State Parks take a few notes before they do any renovations.
Fred and George taking advantage of the lapse in rain to play a card game outside the big tent house.
Plus, these mini-shower-rooms were floored with porous-pebble instead of tile. All sorts of wonderful in terms of drainage and general shower comfort. Throw in the large size (to accommodate the disabled) and it was downright luxurious…for camping that is.
Other bonuses of this set up include being able to send all three of my boys for a shower at once. Also, without gender segregated showers, I could conceivably nag, nay…encourage, my kids to hurry up with out having to shout through the door of the men’s room. It’s been known to happen, trust me. I’ve ruffled a few male campers feathers in my day. Sorry fellas, it’s no picnic on this end either.
In a nutshell…
Overall, there were some highlights at this campground. Loved the shower setup, nature trails, and bear box. And no doubt, it’s a beautiful park.
Dobby took advantage of the break in rain to enjoy his throne by the campfire.
On the downside, this campground is definitely not geared towards tent camping. The sites were just horrendous for pitching. I’m guessing the RV/Popup crowd have a better time of it. Secondly, I have to say the road noise from nearby four-lane Highway 58 was surprisingly loud and not exactly the atmosphere we were hoping to find. Road noise at night may not an issue if you’re an RV camper but in a tent it was a serious bummer. Or maybe I’m just a ridiculously light sleeper.
Ultimately the cons were bigger than the pros and that kept this campground from being a great place for us. And as you know from my report on our adventures at Cumberland Gap NHP, we cut our time short. Now you have a little more insight as to why. Camp Granola just could not get comfortable here and that takes the crunch out of our granola so we kept rolling.
Why all my thoughts may not amount to a hill of beans…
Well, the campground is slated to close and undergo renovations next month. Since I have no idea the extent of those plans, I can’t tell you how much of this will still be relevant. Given that it will be closed for more than six months, I’m guessing this could be fairly extensive. Hopefully some future visitor will give me an update but until then you’ll want to contact the park for more info.
So out of curiosity, what’s the best campground shower you’ve found?
And now for your moment of green…
While not very comfortable, the Wilderness Road campground definitely had lots of pretty to shoot.
October 20, 2011
Cumberland Gap: Rangers in the Making
Obviously one of our priorities as parents here at Camp Granola is fostering a love of the outdoors, adventure, and nature in our littlest granolans. Fred and George are curious about a great variety of things, not all of which are related to these pursuits but it makes for a happy granola mom when they embrace it. Part of fostering that curiosity and connection to the natural world is making it interesting and fun.
That’s where tours and activities come in. Not only do events like this give them exposure to things outside of my range of expertise but it allows them the opportunity to, quite honestly, listen to someone besides me. And that’s why we took part in a couple of offerings at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.
The Gap Cave tour…Fred and George approved.
Gap Cave Tour…
I’ll preface this by saying that we Camp Granolans haven’t seen a lot of cave action. Most of our experience has been with really cheesy, over-processed, touron locations like Ruby Falls in Chattanooga…but thats a rant for another day. So for the boys to explore a mostly unadultered cave was quite a novelty.
A clue from Bubba the Bear.
Jester was the escort for this tour since one of us had to stay with the pup so I pretty much just have to report second-hand. The consensus amongst my fellas was that the cave was amazing. They reveled in the formations, bats, and mystery of the underground world. Jester was probably the cutest though with his insistence that there was, in fact, an overturned lakebed, complete with fossils and dessication cracks. He rarely gets that excited about anything geologic so I didn’t want to deflate his enthusiasm…but, yes dear, that can happen over the course of geologic time. (Insert head pat here.)
The Camp Granola boys definitely came out of the deep, dark cave with a lot of new information and they were pleasantly surprised at being able to explore at a reasonable pace with a knowledgeable ranger. At any rate, the boys highly recommend the Gap Cave tour, especially if you like your travels to be authentic. For the details, you’ll want to go straight to the source at the NPS Gap Cave page.
The rescue helicopter certainly had everyone’s attention.
Junior Ranger Training…
One of the events I insisted the kids take part in was a Survival Techniques Junior Ranger class. While Jester and I are both former backpackers, we’re admittedly very rusty and we haven’t formally trained the kids either. (I know, I’m a slacker granola mom…I hang my make-up-less face in shame.)
So I thought this program would be a good opportunity to get them a lot of information they might actually listen to since it wouldn’t be coming directly from us. Because, even as granola-happy-family as we are, we still have plenty of Charlie-Brown-adult syndrome going on. And this subject-matter is too crucial for them to tune us out into a series indistinguishable grunts.
The SAR team found Bubba’s SOS and came in for the rescue.
The Rangers took the lot of kids, a good two dozen of them by my estimate, through a faux search-and-rescue of Bubba the Bear, a puppet stand-in for a lost child. They covered the basics of what to do if you get separated or lost and how to stay safe, hydrated, and warm.
They also squeezed in a wow-factor at the end by having a SAR helicopter land in the clearing next to the Visitor Center. That was pretty slick. Aside from the helicopter, I think the aspect that left the biggest impression with my boys was how easily (i.e. in the blink of an eye) people, especially kids, can get lost. The rangers had some pretty astounding tales to share.
The rangers clearly put a lot of work into the program and provided a lot of good information. And while it was worth the time, it was geared a bit towards the younger crowd than my budding teenager would have liked. Even George, three years Fred’s Junior, found it too young for his tastes. Even so, I’m glad they went and upped their trail cred. Hopefully we’ll never have to put any of this into practice.
Hensley Settlement…
Or what I’ll call the missed opportunity.
One of the main attractions at Cumberland Gap NHP is the Hensley settlement, a collection of early 1900s historic buildings. This was the tour I was to take the boys on since history is a little bit more in my area of geekdom than Jester’s. Alas, in spite of my desire to take the tour, we opted out. It’s a long tour, about four hours, two of which are driving from what I understand.
Dobby has a Rudolph complex…always excluded from the fun.
And Fred and George were simply “historied” out. With this trip and recent visits to the Atlanta History Center as well as Fort Yargo State Park, they’ve simply had their fill. One of those little parenting nuggets of wisdom is to know how to quit while you’re ahead.
Yes, I could have gone by myself, but the way the timing was working out with different tours and hikes and whatnot, we would have needed to spend another night and everyone was ready to move on to North Carolina for some fun in Asheville. So yeah, leave it to Camp Granola to visit a place and not see the main attraction.
And the point is?
The point is, these are some of the great things you can do at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park with or without kids. More generally, these are the kinds of activities our national parks have to offer for little or no cost and for a variety of ages, backgrounds, abilities, and interests. Particularly for curious families, there’s nothing like national (or even state) parks for exploring and learning. Call them a granola gold mine if you will.
What are your favorite park features?
And now for your moment of green…
This post has been a service of your automatic granola dispenser. We’re currently out exploring Cloudland Canyon State Park. Hope you’ll be having lots of fabulous outdoor fun this weekend too.

October 14, 2011
Cumberland Gap: Grab Your Walking Stick
Welcome to the next installment of our Cumberland Gap adventures granola friends. I have no idea how many parts this Cumberland Gap series will be but there’s a good bit more ground to cover so I’ve just decided to dole it out in little bits and pieces in order keep the whole tale from being a 10,000 word opus.
If you haven’t figured out from the title, this particular granola morsel is about the trails. Or should I say, some of the trails. With roughly 85 miles of trails, there was certainly more park than we had time. At any rate here’s a glimpse of the kind of exploring you can do at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.
Jester and Dobby on the foggy trail from Pinnacle Overlook.
So starting with Pinnacle Overlook…
This fabulous vista is easily accessible to all via a drive on the winding Pinnacle Road. Once at the top, you’ll find a paved footpath that takes you across the state line from Kentucky to Virginia and then to the overlook which provides a grand view over the town of Cumberland Gap, TN and beyond.
In between bursts of clouds, we got a glimpse of the ridge and valley topography.
The thing to realize about the overlook is that the view is in constant flux depending upon the weather. During our visit, we’d withstood a mild rainstorm the previous night so by morning, the low-hanging clouds made for an ethereal landscape as they rolled and molded themselves over the peaks. Fred and George had their big blue eyes open to full aperture in amazement as we eased our way through the fog to the top.
You can’t help but be inspired when looking out over this ridge and valley section of the Appalachians. It’s very impressive even if you’re not a geology geek. And it’s downright exciting if you are. Of course on our visit we were simply teased by the possibilities here. One minute we’d have an eye-popping view and the next we’d be engulfed in moody, soggy pillows. I know I probably just made that sound like a bad thing when in fact it was quite dynamic and groovy.
So if you’re just passing through the area and don’t have much time, give this little detour a try. It’s a quick jaunt to the overlook and it’s well worth the visit.
The Wilderness Road choice…easy bridge or slick ford.
A glimpse of the Daniel Boone Visitor Center complete with Jester’s “Do you have to take a picture of everything?” look.
Wilderness Road…
With a little more time, you might want to consider doing at least some of the Wilderness Road Trail. I’m going to admit a very high history dork factor right up front on this one. The Wilderness Road is the reconstruction of the path taken by the pioneers (including Daniel Boone) through Cumberland Gap. This area was also used by soldiers during the Civil War so you get some extra history bang-for-your-buck.
At the very least, it will certainly give you pause to walk the path of eras-gone-by and imagine the people who passed through in search of opportunity. And if you have an active imagination like yours truly, this trail will have it churning with visions of what must have taken place in these mountains.
As you can see by the state of our boots, it was a bit muddy on the trail. But that’s why you wear boots.
Here’s that sun-dappled hillside of ferns I mentioned.
One of the foggy views at Pinnacle.
Tri-State Peak…
We didn’t hike the extent of Wilderness Road but instead peeled of to Tri-State Peak. For the kids, it’s always the carrot-on-the-stick to have a destination to the hike that’s got some wow factor. All we had to do was show Geography George the map with the peak on it and he was ready to get his hike on. Although Fred was is full pre-teen mode that day, I think he secretly enjoyed the novelty of the destination.
Even in the fog, the rich textures of Cumberland Gap are eye-catching.
You can reach the Tri-State peak from either park visitor center but by starting at the Daniel Boone Visitor Center instead of the main park visitor center, you get to experience the oddly appealing tribute to the pioneers that consists of large flat-metal sculptures. From either direction, it’s a reasonable length for an afternoon hike with kidlets. Having arrived in the area at the tail-end of a several-day rainfest, the trail was a bit muddy…not that it bothers us really, just an observation.
As muddy as this section was, it would have been a complete slog in the rain so we were quite relieved just to have overcast skies and not a downpour. Either way we carried half the trail back on our boots. In fact, the only way to preserve Blubaru given the lack of proper adventuring floor mats, was to strip off our boots and throw them into the roof box.
The vista over Cumberland Gap, TN from Pinnacle Overlook.
Fred stepping back in time along the Wilderness Road trail.
Green Leaf Trail…
There are so many trails at Cumberland Gap that even the Wilderness Road Campground has trails running directly from it to various points within the park. Here though, you’ll also find shorter nature trails that wiggle through the lower elevations where you can enjoy the lush, mossy goodness along the creeks.
Groovy light through the trees on the Green Leaf Trail.
I ventured out on the Green Leaf nature trail on a slow afternoon to explore. I certainly dig the large, open landscape views that can be had at places like Pinnacle Overlook but there’s something about the subtleties of these hidden treasures that can keep me occupied for hours. It’s in places like this that you find the surprises…every shape of fungi, amazing dappled sunlight over delicate ferns, a lone miniscule flower amongst towering tress. You get the idea…it’s a nature dork’s paradise.
And so many more…
Again, there’s lots of mileage at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park to get your hike on. We didn’t even put a dent in the possibilities. And since I have more pictures than words for this post, here’s a few more shots to tempt you to visit.
Where in the world is George?
Seeing the Daniel Boone trail monument from every angle.
And now for your moment of green…
I know I’m not alone in my love of ‘shroom-covered logs. Fess up everyone. Who else thinks this is neato?

October 10, 2011
Cumberland Gap: Heart of the Park
So diving a bit more into the details of our recent trip, let’s start with a short introduction to the first stop, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, shall we?
The heart of Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Plan on spending some time exploring this visitor center. There’s lots to see and learn.
The big picture…
The timing of our trip put us too early to experience the fall colors but Cumberland Gap did not disappoint in spite of that. We spent three nights at this park and barely scratched the surface of what there is to see and do. This park is huge…24,000 acres huge…and is filled with 85+ miles of trails, limestone caves, and gobs of history. While many of our national treasures have a focus on either history or wilderness, Cumberland Gap has an intriguing mixture of both which is one of the reasons we wanted to explore it.
Rustic goodness to be found right at the visitor center.
The park sits mostly along the state lines of Virginia and Kentucky but also dips a little into Tennessee. The campground is nestled on the Virginia side and the visitor center on the Kentucky side. To get between the two, you have to do the state hokey-pokey through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in Tennessee…much to George’s delight. So keep in mind that while there are trails between the campground, visitor center, and other points within the park, you’ll need to drive if you don’t want to take the whole day to get there. Like I said, this park is big.
In a nutshell, the Cumberland Gap area is a historical crossroads of sorts…the gateway to the west used by pioneers, Native Americans, and bison. Throw in some Civil War action and you can imagine there’s a lot to be learned there. Even having recently refreshed my own American History knowledge through Fred and George’s homeschooling, I came away with a lot of new and astonishing information about America’s pioneer era…and now I’m actually old enough to appreciate the magnitude of it.
As is the way of the south, you can always sit for a spell and enjoy the view.
Start at the Visitor Center…
It’s a no-brainer that any time you visit a new park, especially one of this size, a stop at the Visitor Center is a good measure to orient yourself. Cumberland Gap’s is of particular importance since that’s where you can make reservations for tours. It also happens to have no shortage of photography subject-matter. I could have spent days just shooting around the Visitor Center itself, much less the remainder of the park. Plus, being a high-traffic park, they seem to always have some sort of event or program going on so there’s no better place to start exploring than at the hub of the action.
I love the nuances maintained by the park, right down to the rustic-looking padlock.
What to do…
I think one of the most appealing traits of this park is that it does have a little bit to offer just about everyone. You can get anything from a quick drive up to Pinnacle Overlook for an easily accessible grand view to a hard-core backcountry wilderness hike. There are also day hikes, history tours, history movies & displays, cave tours, Jr. Ranger programs, and so forth. During our visit, they even had a craftsman building dulcimers.
With that in mind, I’ll leave you with this prologue to our time at Cumberland Gap and a few more shots of the heart of this fabulous park. Stay tuned for more Camp Granola tales from Kentucky/Virginia. And, of course, if you’d like more in-depth information on the park, you’ll want to get it straight from the horse’s mouth here.
I was a total photo-dork for this ensemble of lines, textures, and colors.
And now for your moment of green…
Too late for summer blooms, too early for fall leaves, I still found delight in the textures and variation of the garden in front of the visitor center.

October 7, 2011