6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 1

Sunset at Stateline Overlook at Breaks Interstate Park

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This is the second post in a series for this trip. You can view links to the other posts at the bottom of this one.

When you embark on a trip with three dogs to a state park where you need to bring your own linens and food, packing the car is a noteworthy activity. A successful car loading looks like this: all of us in the SUV with the ability to see out the back window. That, of course, is the finished product. What got us there was putting our 3 dogs in the back seat of our SUV, snug in their dog hammock (best purchase ever!) with a dog bed atop the hammock and other bags filling the foot portion of the back seat. The trunk was filled with expert-level tetris skills, just barely avoiding blocking the visibility out the back window!

The drive from Roanoke, Virginia, to Breaks Interstate Park, which spans both Virginia and Kentucky, is about 3.5 hours. While we started off on major interstates, more than half the trip was on small to medium rural roads that wended their way up, over, and through the mountains that envelope western Virginia.

We had a beautiful day for the drive – a tad chilly outside but toasty in the car – and sunny, blue skies. Because it is early spring, we were treated to some flowering trees and the pale green leaves of trees sprouting their newest season’s growth. Spring started early this year in Virginia, but there were still some flowering red buds, dogwoods (Virginia’s state tree and state flower), and empress trees that we first mistook for wisteria. We have never noticed this wild vine-y tree with bunches of lavender blossoms until recently, and next thing we know, we started spotting it all over! Unfortunately the empress tree, native to China, is invasive here.

The first hour of the drive took us through areas we had been before, but beyond that was new territory. Along the way we spotted a few signs of interest and made note to look up more information about the New River Trail, the Wolf Creek Indian Village (a recreated village on the site where archeological remnants were discovered during the building of the interstate), and Fort Witten (a recreation on the site of the original fort from 1774), part of the Historic Crab Orchard Museum. A large traffic jam on I-77 led us on a more rural route (thank goodness for Google Maps’ re-routing!). We were surprised to find ourselves driving through an unexpected tunnel – Big Walker Mountain Tunnel, over a quarter-mile long – along the way. On this side route, Dustin noticed a sign to Burkes Garden as we passed through the town of Gratton. Burkes Garden has been on our list to see for the last couple of years, but we didn’t expect to pass so close on this trip. We made a note to see how far away Burkes Garden actually was when we regained internet service. (The answer is a mere 7.6 mile drive!)

This part of Virginia is very far away from even medium-sized cities so towns and places I’d long heard of but were no more than names popped up before us, quickly passing to our rear view mirrors for the most part. We drove through Tazewell (pronounced Taz-well) and Grundy, and also communities we had never heard of but are clearly known in this part of the state, such as Vansant. That town had signs for a long time until we got to it!

We finally arrived at Breaks Interstate Park with the glazed over eyes that hours of alert driving cause and after a stop at the closed Visitor’s Center (it was almost 6pm and the site has seasonally-limited hours) and a quick call, we reversed course to the lobby of the Lodge, got the key to our cabin and park map and headed to our cabin.

Breaks Interstate Park has a wide variety of accommodations. There are 5 log cabins (which is where we stayed), 4 “cottages” that appear to be built circa 1970, a campground, and a lodge (with rooms like a hotel). Only one log cabin, Cabin 1, allows pets, and that’s what we booked. In fact, that dog-friendly cabin is how we found Breaks Interstate Park to begin with! Back in the fall when we returned from our West Virginia cabin stay at Watoga State Park, I started searching for Virginia state parks that had dog-friendly cabins and weren’t too far of a drive. I almost skipped right past Breaks Interstate Park; after all, it sounds like it is along a highway. But no, “interstate” refers to the fact that this park spans two states, Virginia and Kentucky, and is one of only two state parks to do so in the country. Once I looked at a few photos and saw how gorgeous the park was, we booked it!

At the time of our booking and in materials since, we were informed that we had to bring our own linens (bedding, towels, potholder, etc.). Prior to COVID, the state parks provided those services, but they had paused that service. West Virginia had done the same, but by the time we visited there last September, they had restarted linen service. Upon arrival in the cabin, we discovered they’ve clearly restarted that service here, so we could have avoided bringing a bunch of stuff with us. Oh well, better safe than sorry! The cabin is similar to any accommodation someone might rent from a private homeowner with a fully equipped kitchen and extras like coffee packets, standard hotel toiletries, and blow dryers.

While the cabins vary in size, we selected the only dog-friendly option, which is a 3 bedroom (2 regular bedrooms on the ground floor plus a loft upstairs) and 2 full bathroom. Our dogs immediately scrambled up the wooden stairs and stumbled their way down in a mad dash. While they have no qualms about their own safety, we do worry about that since they’re all seniors at this point. We immediately blocked off the upstairs entirely. Out front is a porch with rocking chairs, and the back of the cabin is a covered porch, half of it open and half of it screened in, overlooking Laurel Lake. They usually have a hot tub in the screened porch version but had told us prior to our arrival that it was undergoing repairs. Given that the hot tub was nowhere to be seen, I’m unsure whether it will return or not!

Unpacking the car to the chaotic pants of our excitable dogs is always fun but before long we were settled in and had all eaten dinner. With the sun getting close to sunset, Dustin and I decided to scope the area out. The main part of the park is a loop road, and the trailheads are either accessible directly from that road or via other trails. We drove the loop, spotting various trails and finally came to Stateline Overlook, which looked pretty through the trees. We parked and walked the short distance to the overlook and wow did we have a gorgeous sunset set against the undulating mountains of Virginia and into Kentucky.