About Fancy Gap, Hillsville, Galax & Carroll County

Carroll County offers a wide range of outdoor activities, festivals, music, heritage, and arts and crafts. Start your visit at the Blue Ridge Plateau Regional Visitor Center, located inside the Southwest Virginia Farmers’ Market at the Hillsville exit (exit 14) off Interstate 77 on Farmers’ Market Drive. Parkway access is available at Milepost 199.5 in Fancy Gap, where cool summer breezes and long-range views are plentiful.

Music is a central theme in this area’s history. The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, runs through the middle of Carroll County and is also the center point for three of the Road’s major venues – Floyd Country Store on one side, the Rex Theater on the other, and the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Parkway. For one week in August, The Old Fiddler’s Convention, the world’s oldest and largest gathering of its kind convenes in Galax, Virginia.

Carroll County’s southwest neighbor, Grayson County, is home to Virginia’s two highest mountains, 5,729-foot Mount Rogers (part of the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area) and Whitetop Mountain (5,520 feet), both of which offer outstanding vistas as well as some of the state’s best bird-watching.

Meandering through Grayson, Carroll, Whyte and Pulaski counties and paralleling the historic New River for 39 miles, visitors will find the delightful New River Trail State Park. This 57-mile long state park is part of the Rails-to-Trails Program, which repurposes abandoned railroad right-of-ways into recreational multi-use trails.