Visitor Centers

There are two park visitor centers, Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, at Mile 4.6 in the Northern District, and Byrd Visitor Center, in the Central District at Mile 51 in Big Meadows. Both are open daily 8:30am to 5pm from mid-April through October (to 6pm on weekends from July through Labor Day) and on an intermittent schedule through Thanksgiving weekend in late November. Both provide information, maps of nearby hiking trails, interpretive exhibits, films, slide shows, and nature walks.

Operated by the town of Waynesboro, the Rockfish Gap Information Center, on U.S. 211 (at Exit 99 off I-64) at the park's southern gate (tel. 540/943-5187; www.waynesboro.va.us), has a terrific room-size topographical map of the region (and a life-size statue of Robert E. Lee). Daily hours are 9am to 5pm (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day).