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Damascus, Virginia Media Room

2026 Season Updates

Trail Town USA is OPEN for business and eager to welcome visitors!

For decades now, the many trails of Damascus, Virginia have been a source of economic growth and vitality. We are open for business and our local businesses are eagerly welcoming visitors back to town. Check out our new events, Damascus Trout Days and the Damascus Adventure Moto DAM 200, plus long-time favorite, the Appalachian Trail Days Festival. We have a busy 2026 season ahead!

The Virginia Creeper Trail remains open from the Start to the Heart, Abingdon to Damascus, about 17 miles. The upper half of the trail is being rebuilt and is expected to be completed in Fall 2026.

View our Damascus Area Trail Updates for the most current information on trail conditions and the restoration of the upper half of the Virginia Creeper Trail:

Damascus Area Trail Updates

Welcome to Damascus VA, Trail Town USA!

One of America’s Best Trail Towns.

Damascus is a small town in Southwest Virginia with a big claim to fame: Seven major trails intersect within town limits, making us “Trail Town USA”. Originally a railroad town in the lumber boom of the early 20th century, this small-town economy reinvented itself through outdoor recreation and tourism in the 1990s and has been thriving ever since. Tourism is one of the largest economic drivers in Washington County, VA, second only to agriculture.

Many Trails Pass Through Downtown.

The Appalachian Trail enters the state of Virginia just a few miles south of town, then runs through the Town Park and down the sidewalk of Laurel Avenue, our Main Street. The AT passes right by the Damascus Trail Center, one of three visitor centers operated by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy along the 2,200 mile trail. We are at the heart of the Virginia Creeper Trail, which stretches across the middle of town two blocks to the south. In the busy summer season, wheeled tourists pass through town on the TransAmerican and TransVirginia bike routes, as well as the Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail, The Crooked Road, and the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (MABDR) motor routes. Nearby are the Mount Rogers Scenic Byway, The Snake 421, and the Overmountain Victory Trail. The Iron Mountain Trail offers classic ridgeline singletrack for mountain biking. Damascus is a gateway town to the five highest peaks in the state: Mount Rogers (5,729ft), Whitetop Mountain (5,525ft), Pine Mountain/Wilburn Ridge (5,525ft), Buzzard Rock (5,095ft), and Haw Orchard Mountain (5,007ft). Nearby are Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Grayson Highlands State Park, and Cherokee National Forest, all popular destinations for outdoor recreation with hiking, backpacking, bouldering, horseback riding, biking, paddling, fishing, and more. Just south of town is Backbone Rock Recreation Area, also known as the “World’s Shortest Highway Tunnel”.

Best Kept Secret? Trout Streams

One of our best-kept secrets? Several trout streams and whitewater runs converge in Damascus. Whitetop Laurel, Beaverdam Creek, and Tennessee Laurel come together in downtown to form Laurel Creek for a short distance and join the South Fork of the Holston River just downstream. Each a fishing destination in their own right, Whitetop Laurel is renowned as one of Virginia’s greatest wild trout streams and forms in the shadow of Whitetop Mountain, Virginia’s second highest peak.The river flows into nearby South Holston Lake, a popular spot along the Virginia/Tennessee state line for motorized boating, flatwater paddling, swimming, and bass fishing. And the famed South Holston tailwater in Tennessee is just a short drive away!

Appalachian Trail Days Festival

The biggest event of the year in Damascus is the Appalachian Trail Days Festival, known locally as ‘Trail Days’. Each year in May, the town swells from 650 residents to an estimated 25,000 people for the weekend. Trail Days is a celebration of the Appalachian Trail and thru-hiker culture and a massive reunion of thru-hikers past and present.