When you open yourself up to life, Life opens up to you!: Fairy Stone State Park Stuart Virginia

Headed out of Front Royal and traveled south to FairyStone State Park, in southern Virginia, on Nov 4. Now this is my favorite state park so far, may decide to make two or three posts out of our stay there. The ride went smoothly, little traffic. That is the advantage of being able to set one's own schedule. We travel during the week and not before 8:30 - 9:00, missing that morning traffic. With keeping our travel days to no more than 5 hours we get where we are going before rush hour and plenty of time to set up camp before dinner. So far that is working well for us.

Fairy Stone is beautiful, in the mountains just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The campground situated well up and away from the day use area but close enough for us to being able to walk there and back. Campground is mostly well maintained, has the feel of true camping with lots of trees. The bathhouse kept cleaned with an interesting setup. The restrooms are located in the front of the building with the typical women's on one side, men's on the other. The showers are generic and located in the back of the building, five shower rooms with lots of great hot water. Good setup. No other amenities at the campground it's self, but plenty to do in the park. My only complaint there is the big need for the site pads to be redone. Many were very uneven and the asphalt missing in big chunks. If you were tenting you were set as nice sandy tent pads were recently put in. Most of the sites are on the short side so not really conducive to big rigs, though there were several that came in and made it work. We being 30 feet had no problem. The park also offers cabin and yurt accommodations, some of the cabins have a lovely lake view.

We had the pleasure, while there, to get to know the Camp Hosts. Pete and Sharon have been Camp Hosts there for the past ten years. They keep the sites clean, bathrooms stocked, and help out the campers as needed. We clicked well when we met and enjoyed several get togethers involving lots of chatting, laughter and a bit of wine. Pete is a semi retired woodworker, making clocks and mantles pieces. Would so love to see his work. Sharon is retired, having worked for many years at Clemson University. At one of our campfires together another camper joined us. Turned out Eric is an author and has a ministry helping those with PTSD and similar difficulties. He himself was in the service, having been wounded dealt with this over the years. What an interesting gathering and the conversation flowed. Once again we were gifted.

One of the things we enjoyed was the hiking, and being able to get to the trails right from the campground. I believe I will write about our hiking in a separate post. Meanwhile I'll get back to our time there. The park has a large lake for boating, fishing and even a beach open during the warmer months. The lake is man made and now covers the town once called Fayerdale. Fayerdale was a Iron Ore Mining Center and the remnants of the old Iron Furnace is still visible. When the country started importing Iron Ore from Germany at a much lower rate Fayerdale couldn't compete and became a ghost town. It was under the administration of FDR and the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps that the land became a state park. Several of the cabins are the originals built by the CCC.

We learned this at one of the many talks held at the Visitor Center. A must see when at the park, it holds many displays of the various birds, animals, Fairy Stones and other items of interest found at there. We enjoyed meeting one of the Interpreters, Joe, and had the pleasure of hearing so much about the history and mammals there, even a enlightening talk on the moonshine business. The area was once known as the MoonShine Capital of the Country. The park was to have an talk and excursion to the "Hunt Area" for FairyStones", learning we would not make it to that, Joe gave us a personal tour and helped us find many of the stones. Now to me, that's going above and beyond, we so thank him, again another gift. More on Fairy Stones in another post.

Interpreter Joe

I highly recommend visiting this gem of a park, the largest of the six original State Parks of Virginia. For hiking, swimming, boating, finding FairyStones, hunting, fishing, camping or just being, it can't be beat. It even has an Equestrian Camp. Something for everyone and one I would certainly go back to.