March 11-13, 2025
I arrived at Hungry Mother State Park for three nights on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. It was late in the afternoon, and I took a short hike along the overflow area of the dam and south side of the 108-acre Hungry Mother Lake. According to signs, building the dam was one of the first park projects for the Civilian Conservation Corp. Hungry Mother was one of the six original Virginia State Parks, all of which opened on the same day, June 15, 1936.
There are three campgrounds. I was at the first one, Camp Burson. From there, Route 16 runs west along the south side of the lake. At the two-mile mark there is a visitor center on the left. A right-hand turn that leads to the beach, a conference center, and two more campgrounds.
Camp Burson was not very full this early in the season. I had site at site13, near the trailhead. I did some hiking, but the main activity I did while here was, guess what? Bicycling. Route 16 did not have much of a shoulder, but it also did not have much traffic. Once past the visitor center, the road climbs for about three miles, going from about 2,200 feet to 3,500 feet in elevation to Walker Overlook. It’s a nice climb, the kind of thing I enjoy. I rode two of the three days I was there, twenty-two miles the first day and twenty-nine the second.
I might return here again one day. Walker Overlook is the first of three climbs between the park and the town of Tazewell. The road is known as “Back of the Dragon.” It is a designated motorcycle route, thirty-two miles long and having over 300 curves in it as it rises and descends the mountains on the west side of I-81. I would like to do the road out-and-back at a later date.
The camp hosts, Amy and Patrick, were very personable, as was a neighbor, Elijah, who was staying in one of the park’s yurts. He was on spring break from college, about two hours north, and he was here enjoying nature.
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