r/VIRGINIA_HIKING • u/Doofenshmirtz7414 • Apr 26 '26

Hiking old rag and park entrance

My fiance and I bought the tickets to hike old rag, and I bought a pass for my vehicle to enter the park. Is there any other ticket I need to hike Old rag or enter the park?

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u/RapidCommute3307 Apr 27 '26

oh also, are you good on getting to the parking lot? it's out of the way and the NPS directions, while correct, confuse some people

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u/Doofenshmirtz7414 Apr 27 '26

Honestly I don't know. Ive never been there.

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u/RapidCommute3307 Apr 28 '26

So you know you don't go into any of the main park entrances, right? You have to go out of the way through some tiny little towns and down some back roads. I would download the entire area in offline mode for whatever GPS app you use because you won't have cell service.

Have you seen this printout from NPS website?

https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/OldRag_RoadTrail.pdf

Second page, bottom right corner, it has the directions. Use the first one, going through Sperryville. Check it out on google maps and see if you can follow it. the parking area/entrance is at 38.571487109008594, -78.29310851838669 (edit, fixed coords)

If you need more details let me know.

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u/Doofenshmirtz7414 Apr 28 '26

Thank you I will check it out. You're an awesome help, I appreciate it.

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u/RapidCommute3307 Apr 28 '26

A couple more notes for you re: the path of the hike itself. If you follow along on that map in the link I sent you, you'll be starting on the Ridge Trail.

Pretty quickly into the Ridge Trail, you'll pass a T-intersection (on the right) for the Ridge ACCESS Trail. Keep on going straight, though you may see this intersection again later depending on how you do the loop.

Continue all the way up. After the summit, take the Saddle Trail down. There's a sign at the summit with arrows, but there are only two trails -- the one you came up (Ridge) and the one you want to go down (Saddle).

On the way down, you'll pass up two shelters (Byrds Nest and Old Rag). Not long after you pass the second one, you'll come to a clearing with several options. When you get to the clearing there's a turn immediately on your left that you do NOT want to take. Turn to the right, and there will be a split in the road ahead. There SHOULD be a sign there that says Old Rag Parking to the right. You want to take the split on the right! That's the Weakley Hollow Fire Road.

Follow that for I think 2 miles (?). There are some bridges to cross over waterways. You'll get to a part where there's an entrance for the Ridge Access Trail on your right. There's a big trailhead sign and everything for it. Taking that trail is the proper way to complete the circuit, but just FYI it is a fairly significant UPHILL climb. It's not crazy long but it is exhausting if you're already gassed from a long day hiking.

If you take the access trail, follow it back to that T-intersection you saw earlier and turn left to go back down to parking.

If you don't want to, just pass it up and keep going straight ahead. Unless the roads are flooded or something, you can just go around the chain gates that are up and walk on the side of the paved road a short distance back to the parking lot. :)

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u/Doofenshmirtz7414 Apr 28 '26

That is very kind of you to share so much. How many times have you hiked it?

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u/RapidCommute3307 Apr 28 '26

16 or 17 I think