In the summer of 2025, we hiked the AT from Route 9, at Keyes Gap, to the power lines, where it connects to Sweet Run State Park. A day later, at the annual AT festival in Hillsboro, VA, I talked to a Virginia State Parks ranger, who gave me a “get in for free” pass to any Virginia park. They had a display on a newer state park that was still being designed (it opened in 2023). A nonprofit acquired it in 1999, and by 2016 the state was in the process of acquiring it. It’s also the only state park in Loudoun County, VA.
Then life slipped by.
I kept meaning to go back and check out the park. Which is even more embarrassing, since it’s not far from the VA/WV border or my house. It’s only a few short miles from Harper’s Ferry National Park. It’s on the typically curvy back roads of NoVa, but nothing weird. It is well signed.
The road in (the park’s main road) is one lane and crosses a tiny bridge. You will encounter a self-pay area (it is $10.00. Glad I had my “get in free card”! Go by a vintage house that is the visitor center, and the parking lot is there, along with the end of the road. It isn’t a large road, but overflow parking is on the lawn. Above the lot is a large interpretive center with open (and heated!) bathrooms. Wooden rocking chairs let you sit and stare at the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Across from the parking area was a garden of native plants and picnic tables. The Blue Ridge Mountains were just starting to turn fall colors.
Below sits, I think, an old Springhouse.
We got onto the main trail and headed out.
Along this section, you pass Wortman Pond, which was… very thick and green.
I think I’d pass swimming in that.
We came to the first junction, took the right fork to Mountain View Trail, and went that way. It parallels Farmstead Trail at first, then passes a large group picnic area and a children’s outdoor play area (nature-based).
Spring must be very pretty in this meadow.
The path here is wide and flat; it is a mowed trail on the edge of a meadow, with the Blue Ridge Mountains in your face and, if you turn around, Short Hill Mountain. The park sits in a narrow valley.
Tiny flowers.
As we reached here, we decided to turn left onto Farmstead Loop, which was at first a connector trail between the two loops.
The trail was leaf-littered.
Piper House. The trail comes down steadily to reach the lowest level, and on a side, as the trail turns, sits this very old cabin house that is falling in (the roof is still on, but it has definitely dropped under).
Not long after, as the trail reaches the bottom, you start hearing a creek, and you will see the Everhart House up high above the trail. Swiss immigrants built it in the 1870s. It was built as a “bank house”, meaning they built it into the hillside, allowing a root cellar, that controlled tempature.
Across from the house, a short path leads to Piney Run, a beautiful mountain stream.
The trail got flatter and wider here. Less roots/mud/rocks to navigate.
It was cold last night, the first real feeling of fall. It meant no bugs and perfect hiking temps.
This house, the fanciest of them all, had no cache box explaining it; the holder was empty. It is the Derry Stone house, and was lived in into the 1940s. It is a gorgeous building.
This trail is blazed with red. Mountain View Loop was silver-blazed. The trail kiosk has paper maps you can take, and they show each trail’s blaze color. This was, you know, which trail you are on, although the trails were very well marked otherwise.
The park is well worth the drive and not far out, whether you are coming from Leesburg, Ashburn, or similar, or from the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
It’s not wilderness, for sure, but long ago it was on the edge of civilization, and the Civil War touched it. Stand at the creek and listen quietly, for you might feel how awesome the Blue Ridge Mountains are.
~Sarah