## Overview

 Bolar Mountain Recreation Area is a great destination for visitors looking for a fun getaway on Lake Moomaw. The area provides plenty of outdoor activities, including boating, fishing, camping and hiking. There is little to no cell service, so be ready to disconnect! 
## Recreation

 Boating, canoeing, water skiing and relaxing on the beach are popular activities at the lake. Anglers fish for brown and rainbow trout, bass and crappie. A boat ramp is located at the Bolar Flat Marina, which has a modern dock with boat slips. Bolar Mountain boasts 11 miles of hiking trails that lead to two impressive scenic overlooks: Islands Overlook Spur and Grouse Point Overlook. Looking for a more primitive experience? Hike or boat to Greenwood Point for dispersed camp sites.\_\_ 
## Facilities

 We have four campgrounds here at Bolar Mountain Recreation area; Sugar Ridge, Campground 1, Campground 2 &amp; Campground 3 respectively. Each campground has \"Prime\" sites which have a view and/or direct access to the lake, those seeking electric sites will find most of their options at Campground 1 followed by 2 &amp; 3. Potable water taps can be found throughout each camp along with flush toilets and showers. Individual camp sites have a picnic table, lantern post, a fire ring and a Camp Host to answer any questions/concerns you may encounter.\_\_\_\_ Campers can empty their waste tanks at one of the two dump stations at Campground 1 or Campground 2.\_\_ 
## Natural Features

 The campground sits on the northern end of Lake Moomaw, a manmade lake covering 2,530 acres along the Jackson River. The lake is held by Gathright Dam, constructed in the 1980\'s by the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control. The lake\'s average depth is 80 feet and it has 43 miles of wooded shoreline making it the second largest impoudment in western virginia.Bolar Mountain is part of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest which span 1.8 million acres across Virginia and parts of West Virginia and Kentucky. The forest protects 40 tree species within mostly Appalachian hardwood and mixed pine-hardwood forests, 60 species of mammals and 200 species of birds.\_\_ 
## Nearby Attractions

 Hidden Valley is a short drive from the lake and has ample opportunities for outdoor enthusiast: Hike or ride your horse along the Jackson River, all the way to Poor Farm, cast a line for trout, and stay at the Hidden Valley Campground or even better the historic bed and breakfast. Warm Springs has restaurants, shopping and a Historical Society for Bath County in addition to other typical amenities.\_\_

Bolar Mountain Recreation Area

I stayed here for 1 night. It was the perfect resting stop on my road trip to the Smoky Mountains. I stayed on campground 1 on a lake side site with access to the lake, the views from my tent were breathtaking! The campground is clean, it has shower and flushable toilets. The camp host sells firewood. The campground is quiet and provides a lot of privacy. The lake beach is within walking distance from campground 1, with picnic tables and a pavilion. There is also a small dock where you can fish. Loves this place, will definitely come back.

Serene with amazing views 

This is a great campground on a beautiful lake. Well off the beaten path, it takes a little time to get there but it's worth the trip.

Off the Beaten Path

Our stay at Bolar Mountain was awesome! We drove almost 5 hours from Pittsburgh to check it out and it was SO worth it! We reserved a primitive site online via recreation.gov (despite the fact that many sites are unreservable and are instead first come, first serve - we didn't want to chance it with the long drive). It was 6pm on a Friday when we arrived, check in booth was unoccupied but as we proceeded to our Sugar ridge site (very easy to find, sites clearly marked) we quickly located our camp host. Not a very enthusiastic host but he was nice, had firewood for sale at his site and drove his golf cart to the booth for us to purchase ice. Our site was across the road from the lake but there was a trail that lead to the water. The water was beautiful, temperature perfect for swimming. There's a Seperate beach that you can drive to that is roped off for swimming purposes but we rather enjoyed walking to the water from our site and having what seemed like our own little swimming spot. Bathrooms were the cleanest I've ever seen at any campground and were a very short, convenient walk from our site! The site itself was very clean and had an oversized, solid picnic table. It had a lamppost and fire pit with a grate for cooking. Recommend foil as grate will be rusty for obvious reasons. We rented kayaks at the marina/camp store down the road and explored a little cove that was really cool. We blocked out 4 hours, but only lasted 2 hours before we got tired and returned the kayaks.

Bolar mountain/lake moomaw

Spent a relaxing long weekend at Lake Moomaw's Bolar Mountain Campground. Our camp hosts were friendly and very helpful.  The views were amazing and beautiful. I can't wait to go back again, we loved it. 

Scenic Camping at Lake Moomaw

We’ve camped here for the second time. The campground Bolar Mountain Rec Area is on Lake Moomaw. We had the pleasure of having a campsite with lake view and access both times. Campground 2 site 53, has a nice private beach area where you can go fishing or swim. Bring water shoes, the rocks can be sharp. The campsite was spacious and shaded, they do offer doubles for larger groups. The bathrooms are flush toilets and have a shower. We like going during the week in the summer, it can get busy on the lake on weekends. Other than that it is quiet and we’ve never had a noise problem. There’s hiking, fishing and a beach. The marina has a store if you forgot something. Each campground has a host and they have firewood for sale, so bring cash.

Excellent Mountain View on a lake 

the water felt great it was a perfect 74 degrees weather 

We had a lot of fun our second time

It’s out of the way but the roads are good and it’s worth the trip. Huge sites, nice bathrooms, hot water, beautiful lake.

Beautiful lake, large sites

My friend and i went here and we had the best time. Great staff and great views. Cant wait to go back again. 

Great place to go!!!

You can fish in the lake right from your campsite. We caught a couple of huge catfish! Though the park facilities are starting to show some wear(bathrooms and showers), the spacious camping sites are in great condition and offer excellent lake or forest views. This we stayed on Site 114 on the Sugar Ridge Camping loop. Our site 114 was nice, but sites on Campground 2 and 3 offer better lake views, especially site 51. The marina offers boat rentals and a small store for supplies. Very inexpensive to rent a canoe and explore the lake. 

  

The only drawback of this park is that campers are allowed to run generators from 6AM to 10PM and camper's dogs are left unattended to bark all day. Quite noisy at times!

The park is amazing with great hiking trails!

Camped at Douthat State Park. Great area for swimming, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, boating, etc. Nice Lake Moomaw views ☀️ ⛵️🛶

Nice Trip

This campground is super popular, and for good reason. Lake Moomaw is beautiful! There are also trails nearby, so it's a great spot for paddling or hiking. We also saw a number of groups tubing/floating on the lake. The campground was nearly full, but it was still quiet throughout the weekend. The sites aren't large, but can comfortably fit a tent or two as well as one or two cars. 

  

The lake was also really warm in June and felt great while swimming!

Beautiful, but Busy

This was our first camping trip to actually visit lake Moomaw in Warm Springs Virginia.  We had been close before but never made it to the lake itself.

First off, sorry for the audio on the video we uploaded.  It seems in March of 2021 I was diagnosed with having lung cancer and it is pinching the never of my left vocal cord so I'll I can use now is my right vocal cord.

Now, given that information, we decided to camp at Bolar Mountain Campground for a few days. We arrived the week before Memorial Day since it worked out better with my chemo treatments. We reserved site 34 and it was a perfect site. It's basically a corner lot which worked out great for us. It's little hike to the bathrooms but not to bad of an incline.

The bathrooms were clean and so were the showers. Everything was great. Access to a small store is not far away. The owner of the little store is very nice and helpful. Stop by and see him if you choose to come camp here.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

https://youtu.be/VIjZYIG58Ks

Beautiful campground surrounding site 34 at Bolar Mountain Campground

This place is amazing. I could stay here every weekend and not get tired of it. Warm water, fresh air, no service.

Bolar Mountain

Our spot was right there on the water, there are bathrooms at the top of the hill. Campsites are drive up and can fit 2 vehicles. The spot also has a fire ring and picnic tables.

I didn’t have cell service and you are pretty close to a lot of other people and RVs, but still a great spot. 

Perfect lake camping

We were in site #5. It was not level yet nothing in the mountains is level. The electric showed 30 &amp; 50 amp yet the 30 amp was disconnected and that's what we need. We had to use the 50 amp hook up. The electric bo is on the wrong side of the site, most in this loop are on the wrong side. We filled with water this loop you have to fill with water. 

The site was nice sized and shaded. 

There isn't any cell service yet near the camp loop 2 the loop below ours behind spot #10 as you walk to the lake at a specific spot you can get service. 

The lake is beautiful. Our neighbor was catching nice fish out in his boat. Many different kinds of fish and very nice sized brown trout.

There is a swim beach which you can launch a kayak or canoe from the beach.

The Marina is closed yet there is a boat launch near the marina. 

  

They really need to update the campground area's  was told it was all closed for a few years too bad they didn't update the campgrounds. 

  

There isn't much around so bring your supplies with you. There is a small general store that sells somethings and gas but it's not a real grocery. They did sell excellent Virginia peanuts there. 

favorite campsites are:

Campground 1 

sites 9 and 2 were my favorite. Sites 2, 3, 9 &amp; 10 the electric boxes are on the correct side.

Campground 2 sites 44 and 45 are nice with water &amp; electric.

Sites 47, 50, 53, 54, 51 and 55 have no hook ups yet they are waterfront sites.

Campground 3 there is a boat &amp; trailer storage area. 

Best sites are 69 and 70 with water &amp; electric.

No hook ups 64, 88 and 89 are waterfront.

  

They had a problem with the water in our loop so the bath house was closed and they had port o potties in front of the bath house. The day use area is big and was not crowded at all. There were many people camping in our loop it was very quiet.