Fairy Stone State Park Campground

We stayed here for 4 nights at the end of September / beg of October of 2023. I had this on my "list of places to stay" for some reason - possibly the "fairy stone" part. The campground is average - sites on the inside tight and wonky. Our firepit was literally just outside our door and our trailer is less than 22'. A lot of the sites on the outside of the loop weren't the most level. Lots of info in our welcome packet - rules, pricing, fairy stones, trails and bears. The park is great! We randomly met a nice ranger over at the fairy stone hunt site, who showed us what to look for, then later I had a private lesson to show how to clean them up. It might take years to get the ones we found to look like the ones in the cool little vis center! Trails were nice, rangers were awesome, loved the little creek in the day use area (so did our big Lab who loves water). So I really liked the park, but the CG was just ok.

This is our second stay at Fairy Stone, for two nights. This time we brought our 26' travel trailer and stayed in (non-site-specific) site 36. This is a very nice pull-through site. You have a fairly close neighbor on one side (not a problem), and woods right outside your front porch. We didn't need leveling blocks and this might be our easiest setup ever. Site 36 is also very near the bathhouse (not a plus in my opinion due to the all-night lights!). Overall, we really enjoyed this stay and look forward to coming back.

Fairy Stone is like several other VA state parks--the best sites are non-reservable. At FS, the reservable sites are on the inside of the loop and are generally smaller and less desirable because of little privacy. The outside sites are reservable by group (red sites with tent pads and green without), and you're assigned a specific upon arrival. We lucked out with site 36--its a great "green" site. There are some other nice sites in this group, while others are more sketchy. I think all sites are E/W. As others have noted, this campground is old and the asphalt is crumbling in places. We experienced very low water pressure at times. However, the bathhouse is nice.

Overall, we really enjoyed the vibe on a summer weekend. The sites are pretty close together, but it wasn't suffocating. Lots of families with kids, riding bikes, etc. The camp hosts and rangers were helpful and unobtrusive. There is a nice trail network, and some will give you a really good workout. We're not really lake people, but of course water sports are big with both Fairy Stone and Philpott Lakes right there. We enjoy hiking to the spillway and wading in the water.

I'd give 4.5 stars if I could. The facilities need some upgrading, but otherwise this place would be five stars!

As other reviewers have said, the campground is tight, and pad sites in need of repair. Many are very close to each other - surprising for a VA state park - and most were pretty unlevel and/or rutted out. It’s a minor complaint, I know, but the fire rings were often on the other side of the site from the gravel pad and picnic tables. Low water pressure at the site, as well, and a good deal of debris around the site.

But hey - it’s a beautiful state park! Nice hiking trails, and Philpott Lake is a beautiful lake to swim, boat, fish, or stare at.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the sites do leave a lot to be desired. Lots of them are rutted out and unlevel, and it seems every trailer or rig in the campground was having trouble - one Class C was on 6” of leveling pads! Low water pressure at the sites, and some are on top of each other.

But VA state parks are beautiful, and this is no exception! Loads of hiking trails, and Philpott Lake is a beautiful lake to swim, fish, paddle, or stare at. Nice sandy beach you can access for swimming, as well

There are a lot of pluses about this campground:
5 star hiking trails that are well marked and kept up with beautiful views
The BEST showers we have found in 18 years of camping all over the US-hot, great pressure, water stays in the stall and not all over
Great beach (though it was closed and too cold when we were there)
Nice store with a few good camping items at the gate
Easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway
There is good WiFi in the parking lot at the Lower Beach
But there are some cons as well:
While the park is old, there have been a lot of updates but one is not the sites and it shows. They may be fine for smaller rigs and tent campers but at 33 ft we had a bit of difficulty getting level
Problems with making reservations online at Reserve America (VA State Parks just started this in March 2018) lead to us being scheduled to arrive the day before we did. The camp manager refused to accept this and in order to stay until our intended date we had to pay for an extra night (I put the amount we'd have paid had it been correct but as it was we paid $55 a night!)
We had no cell reception even extended on AT&T nor with Verizon. The camp host said she had intermittent Verizon but we had none-zip-zilch in 3 days
The rangers are excellent and came around one evening to warn us about the upcoming storm-which did not hit us badly
The Site Specific (reservable sites) are all on the inner loop and they are the less desirable sites. There were only 5 other campers there when we were, in mid-April, and none others by Sunday so it's hard to tell whether taking a chance in warmer months would be worth it.
Overall, with the hiking the access to other sites, the SHOWERS :-), and the peace and quiet we would definitely stay again.

We enjoyed our time at this campground. Due to off-season, there were never more than four other campers in the campground. It was very quiet and peaceful. This is a great place to camp in the off-season. However, cell signal is very sparse. We ended up leaving a day early due to difficulty connecting to any cell towers, making it hard for Mark to work. There is zero T-Mobile or Sprint service here. Several times, we got a signal of -140dbm on AT&T but virtually no data transfer. Verizon data strength ranged from -75dbm to -100dbm, though at times it cut out completely as well.

Minus one star because we checked out a day early so Mark could get back to a good signal area and were not given a refund for our last night, so we ended up paying for our site here and our site in another VA state park, making our per night cost at Fairystone higher than the nominal per night charge.

Great park rangers. Very clean showers. Nice paved trails great for biking. We would definitely stay again if we were vacationing and did not require cell data or if the park installs reliable wifi.