what to do at Breaks Interstate Park

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

Burkes Garden is an unexpected find.

A couple of years ago, Dustin was looking online at a map of our greater region - Southwestern Virginia - and spotted a place on the map that looked geologically interesting. And that is how Burkes Garden came to be on our radar.

6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 5

Having exhausted most of the trails in Breaks Interstate Park, we considered finding a new place to hike on our last full day and found a few trails that piqued our interest in Pikeville, KY, at Bob Amos Park. I already knew that Pikeville was having its annual festival (none other than Hillbilly Days) but figured a hike nearby would be okay and also allow us an opportunity to check out Pikeville. When we looked online for park info in the morning and - thanks to Google - saw that the park was exponentially busier at that moment (at 8am) than normal, we realized the entire area was probably tied up with the festival. So, change of plans.

6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 4

With temperatures set to soar to the mid-to-upper 80s (yes, in Virginia and Kentucky in mid-April!), we planned a morning hike and an afternoon drive in Breaks Interstate Park. Like the prior day, we looked at the trail map and concocted our own version of a multi-trail loop: Tower Tunnel Overlook (0.2 miles) to Prospector Trail (1.5 miles) to Ridge Trail (0.5 miles), and 0.8 miles back along the road to our car for a total of a 3-mile hike over the course of 2 hours 15 minutes.

6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 3

We decided to start the morning off with our own created loop trail route, which we became quite good at during our time at Breaks Interstate Park! This loop-of-our-own-creation was a combination of four park trails, totaling 3 miles.

6 Days at Breaks Interstate Park (Kentucky & Virginia) - Day 2

We decided to check out a bunch of the scenic overlooks to enjoy them and also identify good spots for sunrise and sunset trips in the future. We started first at Towers Overlook, inside the park entrance, and got our first real look at the huge massive rock formation that is left as softer rocks eroded away over time. The Towers, as it is called, jets out from nearby mountains and is almost entirely encircled by the Russell Fork River. The general formation looks a lot like the more well-known Horseshoe Bend in Utah. In fact, both of these canyons are about 1,000 feet deep.

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

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.

Breaks Interstate Park Trip Overview - 6 Days in the Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky

Breaks Interstate Park, located in a rural section of the mid-Atlantic on the border of Virginia and Kentucky is smack dab in a beautiful, mountainous region with undulating mountains and hills spanning out across the two states, and a 1,000 foot deeply cut gorge called Breaks Canyon. The river that runs through the canyon is one of the deepest east of the Mississippi, one of several places colloquially called The Grand Canyon of the East.