Hurricane Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights; a database flag says not open read 16:09 UTC
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2722 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hurricane Campground is one of the best kept secrets in southwest Virginia. Located along a rushing mountain stream under the shade of hemlock and rhododendron, this campground offers a peaceful setting for those looking to relax as well as visitors looking for outdoor adventure. From the campsite, hikers can access many trails including the Appalachian Trail. This well-known trail extends more than 2,189 miles throughout the Appalachian Mountains across 14 states. It is a protected greenway and owns the title as the first National Scenic Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors frequently explore the Hurricane Knob Trail. The loop trail, at 1.1 miles, parallels Hurricane Creek for about half a mile, crosses two wooden bridges and ascends to the picturesque Hurricane Knob. The creeks are stocked with trout for a relaxing day of fishing.
Facilities
Hurricane has drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers and a playing field. Large RVs are not recommended. Each site comes with a lantern pole, picnic table and campfire ring.
Natural Features
The campground is perched along Hurricane Branch and Comers Creek, among colorful rhododendron. Several groomed, grassy fields unfold at the campground, but the campsites are nicely shaded by mixed woods of oak and hemlock. Hurricane Knob is nearby with an elevation from 2800 to 3050 feet. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (276) 783-5196.
Nearby Attractions
Hurricane and Comers creeks run through the campground and surrounding areas for wading and trout fishing. Additional fishing options and excellent hunting opportunities are available near the campground. State fishing and hunting regulations and licensing requirements apply. Hurricane Knob Nature Trail offers a brisk 1-mile loop hike and there is easy access to the Appalachian Trail within ½ mile. The entire campground has a relaxing, rustic atmosphere and an open field allows for games and family fun.
What the agency tells you
Check-in is at 2pm and check-out is at 12pm.
Due to turn ratios the access road is not recommended for RVs longer than 30 feet or towed vehicles
For more information on George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, click here
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 65 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 27
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…Facilities Hurricane has drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers and a playing field. Large RVs are not…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Facilities Hurricane has drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers and a playing field.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…day of fishing. Facilities Hurricane has drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers and a playing field.…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 26th darkest of 88 in VA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:09 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 11 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 8 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:09 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$40 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:09 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 27 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 22 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 153 ft | 87 ftHurricane Creek | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 002 | type not stated | 25 ft | 80 ft | ||
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 153 ft | 141 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 004 | type not stated | 142 ft | |||
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 005 | type not stated | 50 ft | 186 ft | ||
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 74 ft | 198 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 172 ft | $20 | |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 32 ft | 157 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 71 ft | 76 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 71 ft | under 10 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 55 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 012 | type not stated | 14 ft | |||
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 109 ft | 83 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 014D | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 96 ft | 44 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 015D | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 96 ft | 49 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 51 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 76 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | under 10 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 88 ft | under 10 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 88 ft | under 10 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 021 | type not stated | 35 ft | 212 ft | ||
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 118 ft | $20–$40 | |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 180 ft | $20 | |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 024 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 150 ft | $20 | |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 025 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 61 ft | 181 ft | $20 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 68 ft | 152 ft | $20–$40 |
| HURRICANE CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 219 ft | $20–$40 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Old Virginia Group Horse CampMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 1.9 mi
Fox Creek Horse CampMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 1.9 mi
GrindstoneMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 3.8 mi
Raccoon Branch CampgroundMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 3.9 mi
BeartreeMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 9.2 miBeartree Recreation AreaMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 11 miPLEASE FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS AND NOT GPS!
From I-81: Take Marion exit 45 onto Virginia State Route 16 South. Follow SR 16 for 15 miles to SR 650 (5 miles south of Sugar Grove). Turn right on gravel SR 650, and follow for 2 miles to the paved campground entrance road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Troutdale, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 22°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Hurricane Campground is in Virginia’s 9th congressional district. Its representative, H. Morgan Griffith (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyH. Morgan GriffithU.S. Representative · Virginia’s 9th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark R. WarnerU.S. Senator · Virginia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim KaineU.S. Senator · Virginia
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia
Dear H. Morgan Griffith, I’m a constituent in Virginia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 22 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Hurricane Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Hurricane Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Hurricane Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Hurricane Campground (Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia
Dear Mark R. Warner, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 22 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Hurricane Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Hurricane Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Hurricane Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Hurricane Campground (Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia
Dear Tim Kaine, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Hurricane Campground, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 22 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Hurricane Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 11 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Hurricane Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Hurricane Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Hurricane Campground (Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia) via campanac.com