Old Rag Mountain

05/22/2024

03/01/2022

FYI

Beginning today, the Old Rag day-use ticket pilot project will be implemented in the highlighted area and trails. This pilot is intended to help evaluate and adapt to a permanent system in the future.

Visitors to Old Rag Mountain, including hikers on the Saddle, Ridge, and Ridge Access trails, will need to obtain an Old Rag day-use ticket in advance, in addition to a Park entrance pass. The orange-highlighted trails on the map below show which trails require a ticket. The red-shaded area shows the entire area where a day-use ticket is required to camp, travel, fish, etc. The trails, roads, and areas that aren't highlighted do not require an Old Rag day-use ticket, including Weakley Hollow Fire Road.

Tickets can be purchased -- in advance -- on recreation.gov. For more information, please visit our website: https://go.nps.gov/oldragticket

01/31/2022

FYI on your next visit!

Shenandoah National Park is implementing a pilot project to manage visitor use on Old Rag Mountain to reduce impacts to natural resources and to improve visitor experience. “The number of people climbing Old Rag Mountain continues to grow and congestion on the mountain is impacting resources. This pilot project will allow us an opportunity to test a strategy for managing this area to ensure Old Rag is preserved and everyone has a high-quality trip,” according to Superintendent Patrick Kenney.

Day-use tickets for Old Rag Mountain will become available Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. EST. Tickets can be purchased up to 30 days in advance. Beginning March 1, 2022 all visitors to Old Rag (see map) must have a day-use ticket in addition to a Park entrance pass.

A total of 800 tickets will be available for each day from March 1 to November 30; 400 will be released 30 days in advance and the remaining 400 will be released five days in advance. Hikers must purchase their tickets before arriving via https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/10088450/ticket/10088451. Due to the lack of internet connectivity tickets will NOT be available at the Old Rag fee station. There is very little cell phone coverage in the area so please purchase your tickets ahead of traveling to the area. Tickets are valid for the day of arrival only. A day-use ticket does not guarantee a parking spot, and entrance fees still apply in addition to the day-use ticket fee of $1.00.

This pilot project is designed to improve the visitor experience and protect fragile natural resources at Old Rag, one of the Park’s most popular hiking destinations. The pilot is intended to help the Park evaluate and possibly adapt to a permanent system in the future. Park management will share its analysis after the pilot project is completed.

For more information about the pilot, specifics about where tickets are required, and details on obtaining tickets, go to https://go.nps.gov/oldragticket.

Full press release: https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/news/2022-01-31-old-rag-ticket-release.htm

05/12/2021

FYI

06/11/2020

Phase Two: Old Rag Mountain Reopens

Beginning at 7:00 a.m. on June 11, 2020, Shenandoah National Park will reopen access to: “Old Rag and Whiteoak Canyon/Cedar Run circuit trails will reopen from both Skyline Drive and the boundary.”

Parking will be limited to the parking lot and “vehicles parked along the roadside will be ticketed and towed.”

The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners continues to be paramount. At Shenandoah National Park, our operational approach will be to examine each facility function and service provided to ensure those operations comply with current public health guidance and will be...

05/21/2020

During Phase One, Old Rag Mountain and their associated trails are still closed.

Shenandoah National Park will begin its phased reopening at 8:00 a.m., Saturday, May 23. During this phase Old Rag, Whiteoak and their associated trails, as well as all boundary trailheads and picnic areas remain closed. Skyline Drive and other trails will be open from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Entry fees apply and restrooms are limited. For important information about what’s open and what’s closed and what you need to know, visit https://www.nps.gov/shen/phase-one.htm

04/08/2020

FYI

Shenandoah National Park Will Temporarily Close

Luray, Virginia – The National Park Service (NPS) received a letter from the Rappahannock Rapidan Health District of the Virginia Department of Health recommending the full closure of Shenandoah National Park. Upon receiving this request from the health department, Superintendent Jennifer Flynn, with the support of the NPS Deputy Director, Operations, David Vela and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, made the decision to immediately close the park until further notice.

Virginia State Highways 211 and 33 will remain accessible to pass-through.

The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners is our number one priority. The NPS is working servicewide with federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. The park will notify the public when it resumes full operations and provide updates on the park website https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/alerts.htm and social media channels.

The NPS encourages people to take advantage of the many digital tools already available to explore Shenandoah National Park, including:

• Visit our website for interactives, photo galleries, videos, and webcams: https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/photosmultimedia/index.htm
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ShenandoahNPS
• Join us on social media where we will host new content in the coming weeks: https://www.facebook.com/shenandoahnps/, https://twitter.com/ShenandoahNPS, and https://www.instagram.com/shenandoahnps/.

Updates about NPS operations will be posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus. Please visit www.goshenandoah.com for updates about park concessioner, Delaware North’s operations.

04/08/2020

Old Rag is closed to visitors.
https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/alerts.htm

04/05/2020

FYI for SNP

Shenandoah National Park, in response to guidance from Virginia Department of Health, is announcing additional modifications to operations which support federal, state, local and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) efforts to promote social distancing and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Decisions on modifications to park operations are being re-evaluated regularly by park management.

As of April 4, 2020, Shenandoah National Park will offer very limited services outside those that support visitor or resource protection. At Shenandoah National Park, the following services and operations will be suspended in order to comply with the state health guidance:

NEW: Shenandoah National Park will be closed to all access from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily.

NEW: Skyline Drive is closed to motorized vehicles from mile 0 at Front Royal to mile 65.5 at Route 33 east of Elkton and west of Stanardsville (Swift Run Entrance). You can enter at Swift Run, but you can only go south on Skyline Drive. You can also enter at Rockfish Gap Entrance east of Waynesboro and west of Charlottesville. The ~40 mile stretch of Skyline Drive from Swift Run to Rockfish Gap is the only portion of the Drive open to vehicles. Motorists need to be sure to exit by 8:00 p.m. Skyline Drive is open to pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-motorized vehicles from mile 0 at Front Royal to mile 65.5 (Swift Run Entrance), daily from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Visitors need to exit by 8:00 p.m.

NEW: All picnic grounds are closed.

All boundary trailheads in Rappahannock and Page Counties are closed. For a list, see yesterday's update.

Old Rag and the Whiteoak-Cedar Run loops and associated trails are closed. For a specific list, see the March 25 update.

Routes 670 and 648 in Madison County leading to boundary trailheads for Rose River and Dark Hollow are closed.

All facilities, including bathrooms are closed.

There is no camping. Campgrounds are closed and the backcountry is closed to overnight use.

Albemarle County, the city of Charlottesville, and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority have closed the recreational area around Sugar Hollow Reservoir which also prevents access to Moorman River Trails from that location.

03/23/2020

"The access roads to Old Rag and the Whiteoak Canyon boundary trailhead have been closed indefinitely by the Madison County Sheriff's Office."

The access roads to Old Rag and the Whiteoak Canyon boundary trailhead have been closed indefinitely by the Madison County Sheriff's Office.

We are closely monitoring COVID-19 with the federal, state, and local authorities. The situation is changing rapidly. Please monitor our social media sites and/or our website for the most up-to-date information. We will post new information as soon as we have it. Please understand that we cannot always answer individual questions so review the available information in our social media feeds and/or on our website before contacting us:

https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/alerts.htm

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

03/22/2020

Update on Old Rag Mountain and Whiteoak, please adjust your plans!

03/09/2020

Old Rag Update from SNP.

Changes are coming to the visitor experience at Old Rag Mountain. This post is lengthy, so if Old Rag is your jam, settle in.

It’s not a secret that Old Rag is crazy popular, and sometimes the crowds adversely affect the visitor experience. Research and conversation about how best to provide for safe enjoyment and resource protection at Old Rag are ongoing and park management is looking at alternatives.

In the meantime, we’ve been working on one of the biggest challenges at Old Rag: parking. The current lot is on leased land and its location requires hikers to walk along Route 600. A parking area closer to the trail and on Shenandoah National Park land has been a goal for some time.

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, The Shenandoah National Park Trust, park staff, and contractors worked together to acquire land for a new parking area nearer the trail, do the required archeology and environmental assessments, build new trails, and so much more!

The new parking area is near completion. We are happy that hikers will be off the road and have safer access to the trail. And, having parking on park-owned land helps guarantee access in perpetuity.

The new parking area is actually two lots connected by a walking bridge. The upper lot has dedicated RV and horse trailer parking; the lower lot connects with the trailhead.

There’s a new addition to the Ridge Trail that takes hikers from the parking area to the original loop. The loop of the Ridge and Saddle Trails to Weakley Hollow Fire Road is the same. Where Weakley Hollow Fire Road connects with Route 600, the new Ridge Access Trail takes hikers back to the parking area.

For those of you concerned about crowding on the trail, this improvement does not increase vehicle capacity. For now, we will continue to use the former lease lot for some overflow parking, but the majority of the space will be used as a staging area for emergency services and a helicopter landing zone.

The area is still under construction, but we anticipate being ready mid-April. And BTW--in addition to help from our partners, these improvements were funded, in part, with your entrance fees. Thank YOU!