Blue Ridge Highlands, Reddish Knob & the Allegheny Mountains

A short but steep 1-mile trail to a quartzite outcrop at 3,080 feet with an expansive view over the Shenandoah Valley and the layered blue ridgelines beyond. The trailside farm museum at the base has a reconstructed 19th-century mountain homestead that's genuinely worth a look.

A high-elevation mountain lake in the George Washington National Forest — spring-fed, clear, and ringed by hemlock. The swimming beach is one of the most underrated spots on the entire Blue Ridge, and on weekdays it's nearly empty.

Virginia's highest waterfall at 1,200 cumulative feet across five cascades on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. The 1.7-mile trail climbs steadily alongside the falls — each viewpoint reveals a different section of the drop. The uppermost cascade, visible only from the top, is the most dramatic.

A farm-to-table restaurant in downtown Staunton's historic core, in a beautifully restored building steps from the American Shakespeare Center — one of the best dinner tables in the Shenandoah Valley, with a menu built around the small farms of the surrounding highlands.

At 4,397 feet, Reddish Knob is the highest publicly accessible peak in Virginia — a gravel forest road delivers you to a small parking area just below the summit, with a 360-degree view that takes in five states on clear days. The wind-sculpted red spruce near the top mark the edge of the Canadian Zone, rare this far south.

The 1904 Victorian inn on Monterey's main street is the social center of Virginia's most remote county — the dining room serves simple, well-executed mountain cooking that relies on Highland County lamb and local trout. Sit at a window table and watch the high plateau farmland in every direction.

Highland County covers 416 square miles with fewer than 2,500 residents — mostly sheep farmers on a grassy plateau at 3,500 feet. The drive on US-250 between Monterey and Warm Springs passes through a landscape of hay fields, split-rail fences, and panoramic ridgelines that feels genuinely alpine.

Set inside a 200-year-old gristmill on the Jackson River in Warm Springs — the millwheel still turns outside the window and the dining room is candlelit and intimate. The trout is sourced from nearby Jackson River, one of the finest trophy trout streams in the East.

One of Virginia's original six state parks, opened in 1936. Wilson Creek cascades down a narrow gorge through old-growth hardwood — the trail follows it upstream through several small waterfalls before opening into the hemlock-shaded valley above.

Use the afternoon to explore a different trail, cool off at a swimming hole, or find a scenic spot to watch the sunset.

Burgers, hot dogs, and lake-view tables at the park's concession stand — the kind of simple lunch that tastes exceptional after a morning in the woods.

Created by the Gathright Dam on the Jackson River, Lake Moomaw holds 2,530 acres of clear Allegheny water in a steep gorge with no development on its shoreline. The Coles Mountain Trail climbs above the lake through yellow birch and red oak to a ridge overlook that shows the full scale of the reservoir.