Roan Mountain State Park — Attraction in Bakersville

We hosted our wedding of roughly 100 people at Roan Mountain State Park. We live in Arizona (courtesy of Uncle Sam) but are originally from Atlanta and had been to the park multiple times before we decided to host our wedding here. We were hesitant to plan a wedding in the "middle of nowhere" (coming from some of our more 'city-bound' friends and family) but it was such an amazing experience and turned out even better than could have possibly been expected.

There is not a single staff member that works in this park that doesn't have the nicest demeanor or friendliest attitude towards work, the grounds or visitors.

The ladies at the front desk (Vicki, and Theresa I believe?) were unbelievably nice and accommodating through the entire process of making reservations for cabins, extending reservations, all of our crazy friends and family coming in at all hours and leaving all at once. They always had an answer for everything, were incredibly thoughtful and any questions we (or our guests) had that couldn't be answered by them- they'd call a ranger and ask him for us!

Tim and the entire maintenance staff did an amazing job at the venue itself! We held the wedding at The Miller Farmstead. They mowed the grounds the day before (in the freezing rain and fog!), and pulled out all of the picnic tables from the barn for us to use- a job that had originally been planned for myself and the groomsmen. They put out extra trash cans and bags, and came and emptied them that night after the wedding at 7PM!! Absolutely unbelievable service.

The cabins were spotless (as usual) and perfect thanks to the housekeeping staff. I honestly can't say how awesome the cabins are. If you don't mind bringing your own food and doing your own cooking- stay here! The wood burning stoves are awesome and work great in the cooler nights (or the snowy winter). We had a groomsmen cabin and a bridesmaids cabin and then most of the rest of our guests rented out cabins for themselves.

Every ranger we met- even when we received a noise warning for after hours quiet time the night of the wedding- were all SUPER friendly. Nothing but nice, professional, courteous and knowledgeable rangers in the entire park. Things we can't say about some of the parks we've been to.

Our biggest fear for the weekend was that some of our more tech savvy friends wouldn't have any access to cell service or internet and there are NO TV's! It was basically a giant social experiment going back to a time without all of this...and it was perfect! Everyone had a great time, some hiked and explored, some stayed in and hung out by the fire, some sat on the porch and drank coffee (or bourbon) and still others went into town for food! Most didn't even miss it by the second day!

All in all if you're going to have a wedding here, I can't say enough nice things about it. The atmosphere is fantastic and the people are even better.

Thanks Roan Mountain State Park for making our wedding better than it could've possibly been imagined!

Zach and Misty Hurley

PS- In response to the "State run concentration camp" review from below... read between the lines. This place is breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly quiet and relaxed. There's always gonna be...

We had such an amazing time at Roan Mountain State Park. We stayed in cabin 1 and we absolutely loved it. The park is so pretty. We loved how beautiful the entire place was. The scenery and foliage and creek, and hills...everything was very beautiful. We got very lucky with our cabin being located where it was due to having to cart your things in. And I loved our location because we had a nice little field area in front of our cabin. The cabin was very nice for the price. I didn't mind so much the whole "unplugged" thing. I wouldn't have minded a TV though. The beds were also rock hard. I woke up a couple of mornings hardly able to stand up my back was hurting SO bad. I almost slept on the couch. That's kind of a big thing for me because if I'm paying a lot of money to stay somewhere, the least I want is good sleep. We were very happy to see that we were located right by the 'playground' but then we see its only a set of swings, so I don't think I'd really advertise it as a playground. I really really hope they will eventually open up the pool. If they had the pool, I would have wanted to stay all summer. But we had to drive over 30 minutes to find somewhere to swim and that was a whole other story (lets just say you won't find a decent place to swim in the area). We absolutely loved that they had a game room with WIFI and rocking chairs outside. A lot of people would be up there in the evenings to use the internet. They have a pool table, TV, and claw machines. So even though there is no service or wifi at the cabins or campground, there is a place to just sit and chill and do whatever you need on wifi. We saw so many deer just walking through the park, and even through our yard. We got back to our cabin late one evening and found one just laying in our yard! We loved that. We also enjoyed walking the trails. We did try to do the Peg Leg trail and we went to the gravel parking area and the path led to the creek, but from there, there was no markers or anything telling us where to go. Maybe it was just us, but we decided not to do it because we didn't get lost..but maybe we just missed it. Overall, LOVED it. Get the pool going, and we will be back next summer for a week. Oh and also, we loved the owls. I didn't catch the ranger's name- Alyssa maybe? but she did a great job doing the aviary...

Great place to be! Great place to get away from electronics and the hustle and bustle of life. Family friendly, safe for kids where they can ride their bikes around and explore, and there are different events that take place at different times during the week. If you aren't a fan of tent camping, there are RV camp sites with water and electricity hookups. You can also rent a cabin located across the street. The individual tent sites are decently private from one another and the group sites are large enough to accommodate a sizable group. There are bathrooms with sinks, toilets, and showers that are maintained regularly and clean. If you need to there is a small laundry area for washing and dying clothes. There are 2 playgrounds that are fun for the kids and a creek you can play or fish in. There's also a swimming pool and tennis courts for some physical activity and hiking trails located relatively close to the campground. The wildlife is minimal with occasional deer walking through the grounds. Saw plenty of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and sometimes you might see a raccoon at night. I could go on about this but don't want to make this too long of a review. The rangers and staff are friendly and helpful. For instance, when one of our kids in the group was learning to ride their bike without training wheels a ranger came looking for us to inform us the child had wrecked and was a little hurt. It's nice to know there are people looking out for you. Thank you for creating an AWESOME...