Sweet Run State Park (10/14/2025)

Todays visit was to Sweet Run State Park, 11661 Harpers Ferry Road, Hillsboro, VA 20132; Phone: 540-668-6230; Email: sweetrun@dcr.virginia.gov This park officially opened in October 2023 and is still being developed. We stopped by the Park Office, which is the white house on the property, and talked to Ranger Sara Huber, she was very delightful and helpful.
 

The trail we decided to take was the Farmstead Loop. This started off in the woods and the majority of the trail was as you see pictured, flat and level. 

I was fascinated by this boulder laying out in the middle of the woods. I had Amy stand next to it to give it some perspective.

Here we are enjoying the beautiful sunshine and walking the trail together, as we have for 38 years.

 

 Here we are having a little fun on one of the side trails that took us to a foot bridge across a creek. 

We just stood in silence for a few minutes listening to the running water and feeling the cool autumn breeze blowing on our faces.

This was a hollowed out spot under a tree that we spotted next to the creek. I can imagine that one of the animals that call this wood home, living here.

When I first turned the curve in the trail and observed this, I thought it was a giant pig. Do you see it?

This is the back side of a structure on the hillside. Looks pretty good from here, but once we were around on the other side, it was in pretty bad shape.

Here we are again, just enjoying the view and each others company.

We spotted this huge oak tree, which looks like 4 trees in one. Each of these trunks are as large as one of the oaks in our yard, but this is four together as one. 

Here is a closer look at the base of the tree. We were both amazed at how large it is.

Here is the back side of the structure we showed earlier and you can see how it has collapsed.

About 3/4 of the way through our hike, we took Ranger Sara's advice and split off to the Mountain View Trail. This led us out of the woods and into a meadow for the rest of the way. The views were astounding and you can see the mountains and the trees. 

 

Here is a screenshot of our trek from the Avenza App on my phone. This app allows you to download a digital map of each Virginia State park and it has kept us from getting lost on the trail many times. You can also download and print a hard copy of the trails, here. We walked 1.85 miles on the trail today and we did much better than the day before.

Notes

1. This is a new park and still being developed.
2. There are two entrances and we went into the first one. The first stop is where the park office is and its only a white house and you will probably see ranger vehicles outside. There are NO markings on the house, at this time, to distinguish it as an office.
3. The trail head is past the office and there is a parking lot.
4. There is a structure within walking distance of the trailhead that has bathrooms and there were some porta-pottys just of the Mountain View Trail at a Nature Center that is being built.
5. There are currently no overnight facilities at this park.