Talk:Roan Mountain State Park

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Roan Mountain State Park is a 2,006 acre8.118 km² <br /> state park operated by TDEC that is just over an hour drive from downtown Kingsport. It has 0 official trails covering 0.0 miles of hiking. There are no day use fees for hiking.

Onsite amenities include lodging in cabins, RV sites, and tent only camp sites including group camp sites. At least the lower RV sites now include wifi, although on my recent visit I had trouble getting online. I didn't care enough to ask a ranger if I was doing something wrong. Other site amenities include a volleyball court, tennis courts, amphitheater, and apparently the highest elevation of a state park pool in Tennessee (that's a lot of qualifications!). There are also pavilions and a modern conference center available for advanced reservations.

Two historical artifacts of interest are the Miller homestead on Strawberry bald and the Peg Leg Mine. The Miller homestead was built over 100 years ago and was occupied until the 1960's without electricity or running water. While you can visit the homestead anytime of year until 5pm when the gates are promptly locked, the house is open for tours Wed-Sun 9a-5p Memorial day through Labor Day. The Peg Leg Mine, located just behind the visitors center, mined iron ore and up until the last few years you could walk down to the mine and go on guided tours.

The trails overall are good. A lot of them stay fairly close to TN143 making it hard to get away from the road noise. The one exception is Chestnut Ridge Trail. It's a splendid ridge trail but it suffers the classic problem of trails in Appalachia of being teased with majestic views but blocked by tree foliage. A winter trip after the leaves had fallen may change that problem. The one spot offering a lookout from the trail is Raven Rock Trail.

Throughout the year, the park hosts several events including naturalist ralleys, folk life and fall harvest festivals at the homestead, and lastly the popular rhododendron festival in late June.

As I have done for years, most people likely drive through this park on their way to Carvers Gap. If you have the time, stop and look around. As I have done, you may find more than you expected and decide the trip up to Carvers Gap can wait until some other time.