Trails / North Carolina / Blue Ridge High Country

Grandfather Mountain Backcountry: Daniel Boone Scout Trail to Calloway Peak

Grandfather Mountain State Park (Boone Fork parking area, Blue Ridge Parkway near MP 300)

Grandfather Mountain State Park protects the backcountry of a mountain that is also home to a privately owned attraction. The park is separate from that attraction, and Campflare’s listing describes its 13 hike-in campsites as steep, rugged backcountry camping, many with wooden tent platforms.

Calloway Peak, the mountain’s high point at 5,964 feet, is the usual goal. Backpacker calls it “the highest summit in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

The hike

Backpacker’s route starts at the Boone Fork parking area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. An access path leads about 800 feet to the white-feather-blazed Tanawha Trail, which crosses Boone Fork on a footbridge. Past the Asutsi Trail junction, the route keeps straight where the Nuwati Trail forks right, then turns onto the white-blazed Daniel Boone Scout Trail and switchbacks up.

At a Y-junction, a side path leads to Flat Rock for views. The Scout Trail continues past the Daniel Boone group campsite and Briar Patch, with a short detour to view the Linn Cove Viaduct, then climbs through spruce-fir forest to Hi-Balsam Shelter, a three-sided wooden shelter with a metal roof, according to the park. Tom Mangan, who hiked it in 2010, wrote of the shelter: “You could ride out a serious blow in here.”

Above Hi-Balsam the trail passes Raven’s Roost and then tackles the final pitch to Calloway Peak “with the aid of cables and wooden ladders,” as Backpacker puts it. For the return, Backpacker suggests dropping back to the Flat Rock junction and descending the Cragway Trail past Top Crag to the Nuwati Trail and the trailhead.

The park’s campsite table shows how the sites spread out along the climb from Boone Fork: Streamside (1.2 miles), Hermitage, Storyteller, and Refuge in the lower valley; Daniel Boone (2 miles); Briar Patch (2.7); Hi-Balsam (3.3); Raven’s Roost (3.4); Cliffside (3.9); Calloway Gap (4.1); Alpine Meadow (4.5); and Attic Window (4.8). The Profile site, on the mountain’s other side, is 2.5 miles from the Profile trailhead on NC 105.

For a longer backcountry trip in the same part of the Parkway, see Doughton Park’s Basin Cove.

Tips

Reserve a site before you go; the park says cell service is unreliable at the trailheads.
Register at the kiosk near the Boone Fork lot or at the Profile trailhead too. Day hikers also fill out a free permit.
Carry water for the high sites; the park lists no water at the sites from Briar Patch up to Attic Window.
Leave pets home if you can; the park says many trails are too steep for them.
Watch the weather before the ladders and cables.

Camping

All 13 sites require a reservation through NC State Parks (online or 1-877-722-6762), which can be made as late as the same day, plus an on-site registration form. Camp only at designated sites; dispersed camping and hammocking outside sites aren’t allowed. Individual sites hold up to six, and group sites 7 to 12. Fires are allowed only in the stone rings at the seven lower sites; Hi-Balsam and the higher sites have no rings and no fires. Food cables are at the lower sites but not at Briar Patch, Hi-Balsam, Raven’s Roost, Cliffside, Calloway Gap, Alpine Meadow, or Attic Window, so bring a way to store food.

Inside Intel: No camper accounts recommending a specific site were found. Explore Boone, a tourism site, points to the flat spots beside the Grandfather Profile, the platform atop Attic Window Peak, and platforms in the Boone Bowl valley.

Trail facts

Distance: About 6.5 miles for Backpacker’s loop (sources differ)
Route type: Lollipop loop
Difficulty: Strenuous
Campsites: 13 designated sites, 1.2 to 5.5 miles from Boone Fork; Hi-Balsam Shelter at 3.3 miles
Water: Streams at the lower sites only; carry water above them; treat all water
Permits: Campsite reservation and on-site registration; free hiking permit
Bear and food storage: Cables at lower sites only
Fires: Only in rings at lower sites
Dogs: Leashed (6-foot maximum) at campsites
Trailhead: Boone Fork parking area, Blue Ridge Parkway near MP 300
Last verified: October 11, 2026

The Lowdown

Supper at Hi-Balsam Shelter:

There's no fire ring and no water at Grandfather's high shelter, so a just-add-water meal you carried up keeps dinner simple. See which meals testers keep coming back to.

See what testers chose →

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.