Stony Fork 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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:37 UTC
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5349 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Stony Fork, tucked in a dense forest setting, is located at the foot of Big Walker Mountain beside the Big Walker Mountain Scenic Byway. The East Fork of Stony Fork Creek winds through the campground, providing a serene setting for trout fishing and water play for visitors at the welcoming campground. The 1 mile Stony Fork Nature Trail takes campers through groves of pine and hardwoods, and the campground loop road makes for a scenic walk, too. Keep reading
Recreation
The Big Walker Mountain Scenic Byway is an incredible drive for viewing blooms of rhododendron, azalea and mountain laurel in spring, and fiery red and gold foliage in fall. Scenic overlooks highlight views of Mount Rogers and many ridges and valleys. A horseshoe pit at the campground provides hours of fun for families. Experienced hikers love the Seven Sisters Trail, approximately 5 miles, which leads from the campground to the top of Little Walker Mountain, then onto the Scenic Byway.
Facilities
Volunteer hosts are on hand to answer questions and make campers feel welcome. Campsites are ideal for both RV and tent camping. Warm showers and flush toilets are available, plus parking spurs are paved. Most sites come with electric hookups.
Natural Features
Stony Fork sits in a valley of the Appalachians at a 2,400 foot elevation. Its creekside setting provides a peaceful soundtrack of running water. In springtime, wildflowers and rhododendron dot the region with spectacular colors, and fall is reliably scenic with its red and yellow foliage.
Nearby Attractions
Stony Fork is in a natural forest setting at the foot of Big Walker Mountain and adjacent to the Big Walker Scenic Byway. The East Fork of Stony Fork Creek winds through the campground and provides water play and trout fishing. A one-mile nature trail will take campers through stands of pine and hardwoods, while the campground loop road itself is popular with walkers. For the more experienced hiker, Seven Sisters Trail leads from the campground to the top of Little Walker Mountain and back to the Scenic Byway. Within 10 miles of the campground, hike the popular Appalachian Trail, which extends more than 2,175 miles throughout the Appalachian Mountains across 14 states. It is the first trail designated as a National Scenic Trail. There is an outdoor shooting range a few miles from the campground.
What the agency tells you
Check-in is at 2pm and check-out is at 12pm.
Rates do not reflect discounts and attribute fees like electrical and water hookups
All vehicles must fit on paved parking spur
Everything else this campground posts · 3
This facility has first-come, first-served sites
For more information on George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, click here
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
- 53
- Hookups
- 34 electric, 13 water
- Longest rig
- 132 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…RV and tent camping. Warm showers and flush toilets are available, plus parking spurs are paved. Most…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Warm showers and flush toilets are available, plus parking spurs are paved.”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 40th darkest of 88 in VA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 16 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 8 are free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:37 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–$30 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 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
53 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 53 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. 53 of the 53 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Electric | 007 | standard electric | 132 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 12 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 008 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 83 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 009 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 62 ft | 33 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 010 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 62 ft | 95 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 011 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | yes | 79 ft | 30 ft | $26–$30 |
| Electric | 012 | standard electric | 25 ft | 30 amp | 79 ft | 108 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 014 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 95 ft | 123 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 017 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 150 ft | 124 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 018 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 95 ft | 241 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 019 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 95 ft | 270 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 020 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 71 ft | 117 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 021 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 296 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 022 | standard electric | 100 ft | 30 amp | 71 ft | 127 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 023 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 100 ft | 152 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 024 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 158 ft | 303 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 025 | standard electric | 25 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 170 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 026 | standard electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 121 ft | 71 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 027 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 80 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 031 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 105 ft | 235 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 033 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 105 ft | 329 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 045 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 102 ft | 173 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 046 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 92 ft | 71 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Electric | 047 | standard electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 102 ft | 84 ft | $26–$30 | |
| S&P | Electric | type not stated | 132 ft | 30 amp | $20–$30 | |||
| S&P | Standard | type not stated | 25 ft | $20–$30 | ||||
| S&P | Water & Electric | type not stated | 30 ft | 30 amp | $20–$30 | |||
| Standard | 002 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 93 ft | 192 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 161 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 117 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 78 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 85 ft | 43 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 29 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 88 ft | 136 ft | $20 | |
| Standard | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 60 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 028 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 126 ft | 134 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 122 ft | 115 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 264 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 048 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 114 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 049 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 116 ft | 81 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 051 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 116 ft | 189 ft | $20 | ||
| Standard | 052 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 110 ft | 235 ft | $20 | ||
| Water & Electric | 032 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 88 ft | 340 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 034 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 107 ft | 445 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 035 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | yes | 107 ft | 453 ft | $26–$30 |
| Water & Electric | 036 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 104 ft | 566 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 037 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 104 ft | 467 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 038 | type not stated | 30 ft | 30 amp | 537 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| Water & Electric | 039 | standard electric | 25 ft | 30 amp | 123 ft | 436 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 040 | standard electric | 28 ft | 30 amp | 110 ft | 465 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 041 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 123 ft | 347 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 042 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 110 ft | 395 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 043 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 147 ft | 226 ft | $26–$30 | |
| Water & Electric | 044 | standard electric | 28 ft | 30 amp | 92 ft | 161 ft | $26–$30 |
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 53 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Stony Fork CabinJefferson National Forest · 0.0 mi
Raven Cliff Recreation AreaJefferson National Forest · 14 miCollins Cove Horse CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 14 miHussy Mountain Horse CampMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 17 mi
Comer's Rock Recreation AreaMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 17 mi
Sunrise CabinMount Rogers National Recreation Area · 18 miFrom Wytheville, VA, follow I-77 north to Exit 47. Turn left onto Route 717 and drive 4 miles to Stony Fork Campground. Total travel distance is 10 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wytheville, 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 · 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
Stony Fork 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 Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear H. Morgan Griffith, I’m a constituent in Virginia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 49 of the 53 campsites the agency files at Stony Fork 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 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Stony Fork Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Fork 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 Stony Fork Campground (Jefferson National Forest, 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 Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Mark R. Warner, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 49 of the 53 campsites the agency files at Stony Fork 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 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Stony Fork Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Fork 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 Stony Fork Campground (Jefferson National Forest, 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 Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Tim Kaine, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Stony Fork Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 49 of the 53 campsites the agency files at Stony Fork 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 16 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Stony Fork Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Fork 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 Stony Fork Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com