Douthat State Park

First off, if you need a MTB rental for a friend or yourself, rent from Red Newt Bikes in Lexington. Great people, great prices, great shop! This trail system has a little something for everyone. Winding berms with some challenging climbs, quick downhills, smooth single track and grueling rock gardens, several stream crossings that are very doable and refreshing, and scenic falls. You can spend a whole day here and still have more to ride. Trails we rode: Locust Gap, Pine Tree, Huff's, Laurel View, sections of Blue Suck Falls and Stony Run, and Heron Run along Douthat Lake. Bring a water filter for some fresh mountain runoff from the falls - ice cold!

Uphill - 1
Downhill - 4

I rode the #2 loop from the Falcon Guide, Mountain Biking Virginia because it sounded like a great loop. HOLY HELL! The 5 mile climb up Stony Run was challenging to say the least. I'm not opposed to climbing but it went on for hours and by the time we got to the top it wasn't fun at all.

The payoff was a FAST drop down Blue Suck Falls Trail and, although the trail is a bit overgrown and has no birms, we had a blast rippin' down it. 4 hrs. up and .5 hr down for a 10.2 mile loop.

There is a cool hikers' cabin at the top and a great view east of the Blue Ridge. We didn't have time to ride the lower trails but they looked great. Can't wait to go back to ride those and NOT Stony Run.

fun when i am in shape!

This place truly is mountain biking's Disneyland! You can find any type of trail here, from sandy to chundery. These trail also cater to every rider, no matter their skill level. Rain is no worry on these trails because they dry unbelievably well. After three days of rain the dirt was still firm enough to ride on without even seeing tracks! If you have only one day to spend here, camp overnight at the lakeside campground and do the IMBA epic loop. It will dump you out right at your campground. Enjoy!

Nice place to ride. We took Stony Run to the top which is a long climb but not too challenging or steep. We stopped at the Tuscara Overlook which has a phenomenal view! From there we went down Blue Suck Falls which was a fun run, but there were several large trees down that you had to dismount and climb over. There were also a lot of hikers to look out for and some pretty challenging rock gardens but nothing too extreme. The park itself is really pretty too!

Beautiful setting, exhausting but worthwhile climbs to great views and different landscapes.

Great network of trails! Burly climbs and screaming descents.

It's currently (early May) very overgrown.

Great trails, all very rideable. Takes a while to get to the top of Middle Mountain trail but nothing too steep or unrideable. Going down, every trail I rode was fun and super fast. Faster than some guys will want to go so look ahead and don't ride over you head or you might pay. The wider trails are rocky and have multiple lines you could choose to find speed. There are a lot of very steep grades right beside the low side of the single track trails. Overall a lot of fun and I'd like to go back for sure. Campgrounds are really nice as well and most sites are right near trailheads.

Great trails, wonderfully painful climbs!

Did a Saturday here and enjoyed every minute of it. Rode the Beard's Gap Hollow trail, Blue Suck Falls (which btw has some incredibly hard rock gardens on it), Pine Tree, Middle Hollow, Huff's trail (if you do this clockwise DH, there are a lot of nice humps you can catch air off of) for my morning ride. It was a nice little loop, and a lot of fun.

The evening ride was Stony Run to the Tuscarora Overlook and back. This was a 4.5 mile climb all the way to the overlook! It reminded me of some of the rides I did out in Utah! Very rewarding climb, wish there was more of this type of riding in my neck of the woods...

I am looking forward to going back and trying out more of the trails next time I head that direction...

There are a lot of trails to explore at Douthat but Beards Mountain was probably my favorite. Good wintertime views and sections of pea gravel tread on some trails (which reminds me of trails out west).

There's a nice variety of single track at Douthat. It's physically challenging with steep, steep grades throughout the park, even on the trails marked as easy. Many of the trails interconnect, so it's easy to make a loop that suits your experience level.

The park is more developed than I expected, several campgrounds, staffed visitor centers, a restaurant, etc.

There is a parking fee that varies depending on the day of the week... I paid $4.00 on a Friday. It's well worth it though, very scenic and wild once you get away from the camping areas.

The best climbing trail in Va.The downhills on either side of the road are great.getting to the top on either side is painstaking,but worth it.I would give them the highest rating except the trail maint. is very poor.Lots of tree branches,shrubs and piles of leaves block the trails.

Just was here for a couple days of camping/riding for the first time. This park is as advertised, awesome trails, vomit inducing uphills with rewarding downhills. one of the trail heads was 15 feet from my campground.

I used to live in Northern Virginia so biked in the GW National Forest a few times. These trails here at Douthat State Park are in much better condition than a lot of the others I've ridden. The campsites are centrally located so you can just hit the trails from them. It is a lot of fun, but with some pretty brutal climbs to get up to the ridgeline. Please take the outer trails in a clockwise loop. The trails are pretty narrow and I was almost flattened by a guy coming down a switchback.

Camped and rode here last fall when I still had my hardtail 29er. It was rough on a HT bike. Some of the climbs were brutal but the downhill run we took back to the lake was pretty well worth the climb. We rode 20+ miles in a weekend and I don't think we ever rode the same thing twice.

douthat has really good trails and some rocky climb. i like locus gap the best because it is fun and fast. and when you done you can just go for a swim or take a shower

Long, grinding climbs to the top (pretty much without interruption) followed by screaming descents on rocky terrain with lots of loose spots. Very challenging because of the climbing. Lots of amenities in the park, including camping and boating.

I see it's been exactly a year since the last review. All I can say is "wow" and "you should go". Rode east side trails. Marking as Very Difficult for the climbing and the narrow singletrack on several trails with steep drops as the penalty for not staying on the trail. * Review edited 5/16/2011

I rode this trail last fall. It is not very technical but it does have some serious climbs. Definately some nice scenery once you finally get to the top. Blue Suck Falls is nice also.

I enjoyed this ride we did a little over 20 miles in a day. Defiantly say stay for a few days to ride it all. The views from lookout rock was awesome. The down hill is steep and gets you rolling fast