Suggestions for vacation with OUR horses VA, KY, WV area

Hi!
I'm new to this forum, but this looked like a great place to hang with some other horse people!

So my girlfriends and I are looking to take a weekend plus a couple days to go on a bit of a trail riding vacation in October. A central meeting point for us is the Blue Ridge VA, WV, KY area. My mom really wanted to ride the Hatfield/Mccoy trails but I was having trouble finding horse camping areas. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as far as places to camp/cabins etc that we could take our horses and dogs. We are open to roughing in to or more modern accommodations. As long as our horses and dogs are welcome and we can have a good time away we'll be happy. I've been to Graves Mountain, VA - loved it but I like to try new and different places.

BTW, we all have trail seasoned horses and riders. We love anything from strolls in the woods to challenging mountain trails (my boy and I are a fan of the challenging trails, I get bored easily).

I just reread this and it sounds like a personal ad...LOL.

Any help would be wonderful!

Thanks so much, I look forward to participating in these forums!
Mary

I'm also new to this board. Your post caught my eye. I live in Virginia and some of the best riding and horse camping we have done is in Ivanhoe,VA. It is part of the Mt Rogers Rec Area. A favorite is Iron Mountain Horse Camp (www.ironmountainhorsecamp.com). Just down the road from that camp is Hungry Horse East Horse Camp (www.hungryhorseeast.com ). Two primitive horse camps in the Cripple Creek area are Hussy Mountain Horse Camp (really a nice primitive option) and Collins Cove Horse Camp. At the other end of Mt Rogers up at Whitetop in Troutdale are some other horse camps: Rocky Hollow Horse Camp (www.rockyhollowhorsecamp.com ) & High Country Horse Camp (www.campingfriend.com ). We have camped or ridden out of all the mentioned camps and if you enjoy real mountain trail riding you will have fun! In Kentucky I would suggest Red Hill Horse Camp in Livingston, Ky (www.redhillhorsecamp.com ). Hope these are helpful and give you some options to check out.

We love Hungry Horse East. We have been two times now and still have't covered many of the trails. The bathhouses are incredibly clean (theres 4 big bathrooms with hot showers) and the camp is always quiet even when full. The box stalls are also always clean when we get there. They don't like horses in your campsites other than tacking up, but don't mind if you hand graze your horses in the front field.

Here are some pics of hungry horse.
Bathhouse

Trail heading back into camp

Look up graves mountain lodge. Awsome place. You can stay in the lodge or one of the cabins and rent stalls, or park across the road and primitive camp. Primitive is only about 10 bucks per trailer a night. The lodge and cabins have all different rates and packages. About 12 miles of very well marked trails. Usually evening activities going on. Days worth of riding trails along the shenedoah they are great trails but you need to keep track of where you are and how to get back as they wont have arrow signs every where telling you. Maps are for sale at the lodge. Might see me up there. Favorite place in the fall.

I second the Red Hill recommendation (in Kentucky). My SO and I went down for a weekend last fall and I really liked it. We didn't get to ride it all out, but there was some nice scenery. Only downside is that some of the trails are "shared" with ATVs and dirt bikes, and not all of those drivers understand the concept of sharing trails or being courteous to other trail users.