★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Grayson County
Drive-up · public land · Grayson County, VA · 36.66955, -81.48652
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Wow! A beautiful dispersed camping area in the Virginia highlands. Sprawling pasture at the top of the mountain, surrounded by fences and gates. Vault toilet with handful of random fire rings. Enough room for several vehicles. No cell service. Ponies and cattle outside fence. Beautiful scenery. At the end of a rocky, four mile long forest road. Appalachian Trail and other trails pass through. Great hiking. Strongly recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 15 May 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Grayson County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,636 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Grayson CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Grayson County · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · VA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail4 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- LLaundry12 mi
- RxPharmacy12 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- EVEV fast charger14 mi
- DDump14 mi
- MMechanic14 mi
- WWater15 mi
- ShShower15 mi
- OOutfitter16 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- AAir-up21 mi
- PPropane31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Grayson County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
4,636 ft
Ground slope
2.4% · flat
County
Grayson County, VA
Coordinates
36.66955, -81.48652
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Grayson County · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · VA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureOpossum Creek · ~0.3 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townTroutdale · ~3.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelGrayson Highlands General Store Gas · ~3.8 mi
- Propane / LPGExxon · ~31.0 mi
- Dump station~13.9 mi
- GroceriesRailroad Market & Cafe · ~7.3 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~11.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicAshe County Health Department · ~17.5 mi
- HardwareCox Doug Backhoe Service Septic system service · ~13.0 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Grayson County · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · VA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.8 mi straight-line N — Atkins, VA - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach5 within 25 mi · 35 within 50 · 188 within 100 · 421 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS18.3 mi — Randy Marion Ford of West Jefferson, West Jefferson
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO22.4 mi — GPM INVESTMENTS 3416 DC 1, Mountain City
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.4 mi — Exit 47 Dog Park, Marion, VA · AUTEL · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-05-12 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 241142 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Grayson County · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · VA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomMRATC Scales Vault Privy · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomMRATC Wise Shelter Privy 1 · ~1.3 mi SW · NPS
- RestroomMRATC Old Orchard Shelter Privy · ~1.6 mi NW · NPS
- Portable toiletOld Virginia Group Horse Camp · ~2.1 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Grayson County · George Washington and Jefferson National Forest · VA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Opossum Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.3 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2.4% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Grayson County elsewhere
Other camps near Grayson County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Old Orchard A.T. Shelter~1.7 mi
- Old Virginia Group Horse Camp~2.1 mi · fee
- Fox Creek Horse Camp~2.2 mi · fee
- Thomas Knob A.T. Shelter~2.9 mi
The unit that manages Grayson County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Grayson County are set by George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Grayson County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Grayson County, VA). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 15 May 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Grayson County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it