Mountain peakUnited States · US
Whitetop Mountain
Whitetop Mountain is Virginia's second-highest summit, a broad, spruce-crowned peak on the state's Tennessee border that holds a rare distinction: it is the highest point in the Commonwealth you can reach by car. A paved-then-gravel forest road climbs to a pullout just a few steps short of the 5,525-foot top, putting one of Appalachia's most remote-feeling heights within an easy drive of Damascus and Grayson Highlands. What makes the place special is less a single view than the ecosystem you drive through to get there. The road winds past hardwood coves, open meadows and wind-scoured mountain balds before reaching a high-elevation red-spruce and birch forest—an ecological island of northern plants and birds stranded far south of their usual range. On clear days the summit observation site is said to look out across three states, and the short trail to the true apex threads through this rare boreal stand. Whitetop is also a storied slice of mountain culture: the grassy bald here hosted the White Top Folk Festival from 1932 to 1939, drawing thousands to hear old-time and country music on the Virginia–Tennessee line. Today it sits inside the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, with day-use access year-round and no entrance fee—a simple, free taste of high country that pairs naturally with the ponies, balds and Appalachian Trail of neighboring Grayson Highlands State Park.