Raven Cliff Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
There are 20 camping units available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each unit has a gravel parking spur, picnic table and fire grill. Some sites have a pad for tents or pop-up trailers. Recreation vehicles up to 25 feet long can be accommodated in some sites. A day use picnic shelter with picnic tables and an open field for sports is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Toilets and garbage cans are provided in the campground and near the picnic shelter. Drinking water is not available. FEE: $5 per unit, per night (limit of 8 people and 2 vehicles per unit). Located in Raven Cliff Campground, enjoy a large shelter for your next gathering! Along with the amenities of the shelter, it adjoins a large field for games, the rushing waters of Cripple Creek for wading and fishing, hiking trails, and the historic Raven Cliff Furnace. Keep reading
Recreation
Besides the available primitive campsites, Cripple Creek runs through the picnic area and is popular for fishing, wading, and tubing. There are large open fields that are great for sports and picnics.
Facilities
There are 20 camping units available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each unit has a gravel parking spur, picnic table and fire grill. Some sites have a pad for tents or pop-up trailers. Recreation vehicles up to 25 feet long can be accommodated in some sites. Portable toilets and garbage cans are provided in the campground. Drinking water is not available. A wooden picnic shelter that accommodates groups up to 75 people and 15 cars with overflow parking nearby. No drinking water available. The shelter contains picnic tables, grill, and parking. There are available vault toilets.
Natural Features
From the 200-foot sandstone Raven Cliff to the 1810 historic iron ore furnace, this recreation area is off the beaten path, but worth the effort. Trail 4601 and trail 4616 to the Iron Furnace is destroyed and not accessible to foot traffic.
Nearby Attractions
Cripple Creek runs through the area for fishing, wading, or tubing. State fishing regulations and licensing requirements apply. Raven Cliff Furnace Trail (4616) begins in Raven Cliff Campground and follows Cripple Creek until ending at the remains of the old 30-foot-tall Raven Cliff Iron Furnace made from local sandstone. Raven Cliff Trail (4601) a 1.2-mile trail from Raven Cliff Campground connects to Collins Cove Horse Campground or Ewing Mountain Trail (4614). Raven Cliff Trail (4601) is closed due to impacts from Hurricane Helene. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (276) 783-5196.
What the agency tells you
Raven Cliff Furnace Trail (4616) that ends at the remains of the old 30-foot tall Raven Cliff Iron Furnace is closed due to damage from Hurricane Helene. The bridge across Cripple Creek to the Furnace was washed away.
There is no drinking water available, you must bring your own.
No flush toilets available, only porta-john toilets. Vault toilets are available at the picnic shelter area.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click herefor more information on George Washington and Jefferson National Forests
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
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets · Portable Toilets
- “…long can be accommodated in some sites. Portable toilets and garbage cans are provided in the campground.… / …grill, and parking. There are available vault toilets. Natural Features From the 200-foot sandstone Raven…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…campground and near the picnic shelter. Drinking water is not available. FEE: $5 per unit, per night (limit of 8 people and…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| RAVEN CLIFF PICNIC SHELTER | 01 | day use | yes | 101 ft | |
| S&P | Single, S&P | type not stated | $5 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sunrise CabinMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 4.4 miHussy Mountain Horse CampMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 6.2 mi
Comer's Rock Recreation AreaMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 10 mi
Blue Springs Gap CabinJefferson National Forest · 13 mi
Stony Fork CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 14 miRaven Cliff Campground located at 544 Raven Cliff Lane, Ivanhoe, VA approximately 16.5 miles southeast of Wytheville, VA. From I-81: Take Wytheville exit 70 or 72 onto US 11 (Main Street). On the west end of town, US 11 turns off and Main Street and becomes US 21 south. Follow US 21 south for approximately 11.5 miles to Virginia State Route 619 at Speedwell. Turn east on VA 619(Saint Peters Road) and drive about 5 miles. Turn left onto Gleaves Road and drive 1.7 miles. Turn right onto Raven Cliff Lane. Drive .8 mile to the campground on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ivanhoe, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
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
Raven Cliff Recreation Area 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 →