Looking to Play with the Ponies

[Teacher & Snacktime]

I have the maps that list parking and shelters and other vital info....all except what I'm really looking for. Can anyone tell me precisely I should take Snacktime to see the ponies in Grayson Highlands? I'm thinking one day in, overnight, one day out. This is of course flexible.
Anyway, I have to start planning the fall VA trip and this is part of it, along with the hikes in HikerMom/DeerHunter way.

Note: also more interested in hostels and campgrounds than shelters, but that's not written in stone either.

[HikerMom58]

Others will chime in, I'm sure, but I've always heard that Thomas Knob Shelter is the place where the ponies hang out. I'm pretty sure Coach and HB went out and back to that shelter this past spring. They can help you with info, I'm sure!

[illabelle]

You can get to the ponies in a dayhike easy enough. Yes, they hang out near Thomas Knob, but also around Wilburn Ridge and the Rhododendron Trail. Are you coming all the way down to SW Virginia just to see the ponies? If so, I would hope you're planning to spend a few days. You could do a loop through Grayson Highlands, or if you just want to do AT miles, you could leave your car at the visitor center, and get a ride to Whitetop Mountain or elsewhere - depending on how many miles you want to walk. Damascus is nearby. We hiked from Whitetop to Damascus - about 21 miles if I remember right (???). We hiked from Whitetop to the visitor center (2 day trip with a bunch of kids) - about 11 miles. We hiked a loop of non-AT miles in our first visit - about 15 miles I think.

I might be wrong about this, but I think there's not even car camping in GHP. I know you have to cross out of GHP into Mt Roger's wilderness (just a half-mile or so) if you want to set up a tent. If you want a hostel or campground, you can find something in Damascus. There's a shelter a few miles to the north of Thomas Knob (Wise or Wise Springs?), but I haven't been there yet, so I can't tell you what it's like.

It can be very windy on the balds, a good thing or a bad thing depending on when you go. Some of the ponies are very "friendly" to the point of being pushy, but with supervision, Snacktime can probably pet a few of them. Be sure to bring a camera!

[coach lou]

Yes, it is the Massie Gap parking/ trail head. On top, kind of like Greylock with no trees...................and poop, pony poop. I had barely a space for my sleeping bag under the hooch, piles of it everywhere. Not steaming, but..well.....it was really pretty up there. We had a ferocious storm that nite. The Wolf recommended it to us as the best walk for short timers. And he did not disappoint.

[Namtrag]

There is a pretty big rv/car camping campground in the state park. You can't camp anywhere else in the state park boundaries legally.

park in the overnight backpacker lot in state park,go on the AT Connecter trail, hang a right on the AT, then hike around through Scales, up to the Pine Mt trail, where you go south and connect into the AT again. From that intersection, turn right and go to Thomas Knob shelter. That would be a good day of hiking. Stay overnight, and then head back north on the AT until you get to the connector trail back to your car. A short day on day 2.

[No Directions]

You will not have any trouble finding the ponies. In fact there are usually a couple of them hanging around the fence at Massie Gap. Have fun. This is a beautiful place. Please check the weather forecast carefully and heed the warning signs as the weather can change suddenly at Mt Rogers.

[Sailing_Faith]

They are really really easy to find, I saw several when I hiked the area. They will let you get really close.

of course we know that no one is supposed to feed them, but if someone happens to drop som apple slices, I bet they would not last long....

[Teacher & Snacktime]

They are really really easy to find, I saw several when I hiked the area. They will let you get really close.

of course we know that no one is supposed to feed them, but if someone happens to drop som apple slices, I bet they would not last long....

Snacktime always has apples in his pack.....and he does tend to have butterfingers.

[Deer Hunter]

You can get to the ponies in a dayhike easy enough. Yes, they hang out near Thomas Knob, but also around Wilburn Ridge and the Rhododendron Trail. Are you coming all the way down to SW Virginia just to see the ponies? If so, I would hope you're planning to spend a few days. You could do a loop through Grayson Highlands, or if you just want to do AT miles, you could leave your car at the visitor center, and get a ride to Whitetop Mountain or elsewhere - depending on how many miles you want to walk. Damascus is nearby. We hiked from Whitetop to Damascus - about 21 miles if I remember right (???). We hiked from Whitetop to the visitor center (2 day trip with a bunch of kids) - about 11 miles. We hiked a loop of non-AT miles in our first visit - about 15 miles I think.

I might be wrong about this, but I think there's not even car camping in GHP. I know you have to cross out of GHP into Mt Roger's wilderness (just a half-mile or so) if you want to set up a tent. If you want a hostel or campground, you can find something in Damascus. There's a shelter a few miles to the north of Thomas Knob (Wise or Wise Springs?), but I haven't been there yet, so I can't tell you what it's like.

It can be very windy on the balds, a good thing or a bad thing depending on when you go. Some of the ponies are very "friendly" to the point of being pushy, but with supervision, Snacktime can probably pet a few of them. Be sure to bring a camera!

Two years ago when I went through there, one actually kicked a girl. Use some caution and stay in front of the horse and you should be ok and have a great time. Snacktime will enjoy it i'm sure.

[Teacher & Snacktime]

I have a strong respect for horses, so I will absolutely be cautious...thanks DH....and Illabelle....and SF.....and and and .....everyone.

[Siestita]

Dropping apple slices on the ground in front of the Grayson Highland ponies? It's probably for good reason that they are not supposed to be fed. Those ponies are already quite "pushy", as has been pointed out. Look behind yourself occasionally while near them to make sure they don't get into the packs on your backs. While preparing dinner camped on Pine Mountain, I've had to shoo ponies away from my cook pot.

So far, I've not seen any ponies south of where the parallel trails (AT and Virginia Highlands Horse Trail) both lead downward/southward from the ridge to Deep Gap, passing through a wilderness area. Instead, those ponies appear to stay in places more easily accessed from Massie Gap: the upper parts of the State Park, the Wilburn Ridge/Rhododendron Gap Area, and open areas on Pine Mountain above Scales.

If one of your maps of the Highlands is the Forest Service's one, it shows clearly boundaries between designated Wildernesses and other interspersed public lands. The area's ponies (and also cattle on some of the Nat. Forest land) are kept out the Wilderness acreage by fences and gates. So, those Wilderness tracts have become completely reforested while the Crest Zone's scenic balds remain open thanks to the ponies and cattle.

The Wise shelter is a relatively recently constructed one, with a mouldering privy nearby. It's near Big Wilson Creek, right at the edge of the State Park. The Park generously permitted the shelter's construction, but insists that no other camping (tenting or hammocks) take place nearby on their land. Fortunately, there good camp sites within 200 yards of the Wise Shelter, across in the Creek in Forest Service territory. The last time I camped there I heard coyotes calling. Because its down low, during bad weather that Big Wilson Creek area might be a better place to spend a night than some higher, windier locations would be.

Ponies have come to me while I've camped out in the open on Pine Mountain, along the horse trail between Scales and Rhododendron Gap. That horse trail is open and very scenic, paralleling in places the Pine Mountain "hikers only" trail that is located several hundred yards away in the woods. About half way between Scales and Rhododendron Gap there is a place with a horse hitching post, a fenced spring, some campsites, and also a short well used "use" trail connecting the Horse Trail to the Pine Mountain Trail.

[Namtrag]

No one has mentioned the Texas Longhorns which graze in the area. We had 4 pass within 20 ft of us while we were pitching our tent. It was surreal. Those things were monstrous.

[coach lou]

No one has mentioned the Texas Longhorns which graze in the area. We had 4 pass within 20 ft of us while we were pitching our tent. It was surreal. Those things were monstrous.

Oh yes we saw them, put a pic in my gallery. I thought I was in Montana. One had 1 upside-down horn

[Teacher & Snacktime]

Ponies and Longhorns....Snacktime is going to LOVE this!

[FarmerChef]

When are you planning on going? We're headed down Labor Day Weekend to snip off 23 missed miles and maybe bike down the creeper.

[Sailing_Faith]

When are you planning on going? We're headed down Labor Day Weekend to snip off 23 missed miles and maybe bike down the creeper.

Do not miss a bicycle ride down the creeper! If you get really lucky, you might meet a whiteblaze superstar on the ride up.....

(just make sure you do not try to ride with no hands and take a picture at the same time).....

[Teacher & Snacktime]

When are you planning on going? We're headed down Labor Day Weekend to snip off 23 missed miles and maybe bike down the creeper.

I haven't figured that out yet....either Sept or Oct. but don't know what week...it will definitely be after school starts up again

[S'more]

Others will chime in, I'm sure, but I've always heard that Thomas Knob Shelter is the place where the ponies hang out. I'm pretty sure Coach and HB went out and back to that shelter this past spring. They can help you with info, I'm sure!

Anywhere in the Grayson's area, there are usually ponies hanging out! Going up next weekend myself! When you get it figured out, maybe I can work it out! and maybe HM too????

[OzJacko]

Be careful they bite.
Personally I found them pathetic looking and a pest.
I know they are an "institution" on the trail but as feral animals I would recommend culling the lot of them.
They are far too habituated to humans and remind me of gulls at a beach.

[S'more]

You will not have any trouble finding the ponies. In fact there are usually a couple of them hanging around the fence at Massie Gap. Have fun. This is a beautiful place. Please check the weather forecast carefully and heed the warning signs as the weather can change suddenly at Mt Rogers.

+1 on heading the signs. It can be drastically different from the parking area to the trail.