Graves Mountain Lodge

My family and I have been visiting Graves Mountain Lodge for over 50 years. We love it! My favorite is the Sunday fried chicken buffet with creamy mashed potatoes, tangy slaw, cream gravy, and whatever vegetables are in season plus yeast rolls to die for. We had lunch today (Saturday) and enjoyed bbq, slaw, mac and cheese, lima beans, green salad, rolls, apple butter, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. No, it’s not for dieters but you can hike it off later or just sit and enjoy the view from the front porch. Highly recommend.

This based on the restaurant /​Dining Hall. Great Service, greeted with a smile. The drive from northern VA is about 1.5 hour on a Sunday afternoon. We were attending a private party/​celebration. The staff is welcoming and the food was great, country chicken, salad, scalloped potatoes etc., The upstairs dining hall seats about 100ppl with the attached patio portion. This is a great venue to host wedding /​birthday /​retirement party. We really enjoyed everything about it. Thanks for the hospitality and we may see you this spring time for one of the festivals.

My husband and I found ourselves childless this year so we decided to go back to Graves for Thanksgiving dinner and take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and hike around the beautiful hills. We made reservations in advance; a must. Graves is about 1 ½ hours from our home in Loudoun County, a beautiful drive. We had early reservations — noon — and decided to wait for a seat in the side dining room, which has a beautiful valley view. We got seated by 12:30, but enjoyed a wine and beer bar and free cider while we waited (popcorn too, but who wants popcorn before sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal?).
The price was $ 99 for the two of us, including tip and tax — you pay when you check in and get a ticket. Our table was lovely, right by the window, and we were seated with some pleasant folks from Charlottesville (like us, without their children this year) and enjoyed getting to know them while we ate.
The food: Buffet style. We were served fresh rolls and apple butter at the table, and our drinks. There are a variety of salads, slaw, pickled carrots, green salad, etc. but I skipped those and went right for the hot stuff — sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, turkey, stuffing, ham. AND, my absolute favorite: fried oysters, served with cocktail sauce — crispy, hot, fresh and just delicious. Besides the oysters, my favorite dishes were the real mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey. And a cold cranberry salad, I think it was called Fast Fix Salad (creamy cranberry salad with I think whole cranberries, coconut, pineapple, whipped cream — yum). The turkey was good, but I like the skin and wings and this was all skinned and sliced so I was a little disappointed. But it was fine, topped with gravy and cranberry sauce. The stuffing was in squares — okay, but seemed a little dry. We went back for seconds and thirds and were appropriately thanksgiving-​stuffed.
Dessert is served by order and choices included pumpkin and apple pie, apple cake with whipped cream, cookies, chocolate chess pie, and maybe a few others with choice of whipped cream or ice cream topping. Tom had pumpkin pie and I had the apple cake. I thought it was too sweet and I couldn’t finish it, but Tom enjoyed his pumpkin pie. My neighbor passed around her chess pie and it was good, but I thought the desserts were just too sweet to follow a big meal. But maybe just me.
Great experience — I always love dining at Graves where they make you feel like guests in their home. Followed up with a walk through the beautiful grounds to help with digestion!
This place is a gem. Do go if you get the chance!

The lodge is in an absolutely beautiful setting. The food is excellent. The staff are welcoming. The grounds are well kept. There are trails to walk, ponds to fish, courts to play basketball, and they offer horseback riding which is just a few hundred feet from their entrance. For the reasons I just stated are why I give 3 stars. HOWEVER, the lodges themselves and the cabins are very outdated, moldy smelling, and (yes I know this is not the Hilton) the bathrooms are small closets filled with spiders and other creepy crawlies– so bring a broom! The beds seem to be 50 years old and the bedding harkens memories of my grandmothers house. I would like to see them update to at least 1980’s standards before I choose to actually stay here again. I will however come for the food and horseback riding!

I love this place. It’s the perfect weekend getaway from DC that doesn’t take any planning or too long to get to. The best part is that included in the room rate is 3 meals per day – even a sack lunch if you want to take it to go and hit up some of the great hiking around.
I’ve been coming here for more than ten years now and this place really hasn’t changed. It’s ostensibly an apple orchard and you get amazing apple butter with every meal to prove that. They also send out the home made apple sauce in lunches if you ask for it and you can buy the same stuff in the gift shop while you’re there.
The setup has a lot of cabins of various sizes around the property and a few «motels» in the middle with more hotel-​style rooms. Recently, I’ve been staying in the hilltop motel just out of easy and I’ve been very happy with it. There’s rocking chairs in every room and you can drag them out onto the porch and just look out over the picturesque valley while relaxing. We even let our 1-​year-​old play around on a blanket on the grass and it’s one of the most relaxing things in the world. The only way to make it better is to bring a good bottle of wine to enjoy while you’re doing it – which we usually do.
The hilltop motel also has WiFi that works just well enough that you can look something up if you have, send an e-​mail or two and (with patience) post a photo to Facebook, but it doesn’t work well-​enough to get really sucked into your device and miss the beauty around you.
They serve three meals a day and they’re all good, home-​style, rich, nearly-​southern cooking. I think I like breakfast and lunch over dinner most days, but they rotate what they serve by the day. The dinner menu is fixed by the day of the week and you can check it online. The food and sides are always tasty though and you won’t leave hungry. Everything is done family-​style at communal tables. They’re mostly 8-​person tables by the windows with views of the valley. Make sure not to miss the rolls and apple butter – they’re to die for.
Nearby is a ton of beautiful hiking in the Blueridge including white oak canyon, old rag, and a bunch of other hikes that are rugged, but not overly demanding while still being some of the most beautiful scenery you can find within easy driving distance of DC.
Beyond that, they do hayrides, horseback riding, some different music and harvest festivals, and lots of other random things. The nearby fishing is great and I think they still run their own trout pond if you’re into that. There’s also a few interesting wineries nearby that are fun to visit.

Went here in March and November for a weekend retreat. First and foremost, the food is amazing. They serve big, country style dinner, you sit at long tables with your friends/​family, but you have the chance to meet other people visiting sitting next to you. So that’s pleasant for nice chit chat. They serve so much food so be prepared, and they offer you seconds and thirds! For lunch, they served salad, hot rolls with butter and homemade apple butter, egg noodles, beef with gravy, string beans, a few other sides I can’t recall but they were yummy, hot apple pie or apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. For dinner there was fried steak and so many sides, another time there was fried chicken. Breakfast, they served bacon, sausage, scrapple, home fries, cereal, grits, and tons of other stuff.
The view in the mountains is breathtaking. Everywhere you look, there are the huge mountains, trees, the air is really crisp in the fall and winter.
If you stay overnight, the rooms are clean, simple and cozy. There was not a tv in my room nor wi-​fi reception and cell phone coverage is spotty. Basically, when you come out here the point is to unwind, and be off the grid for a day or two.
Some people just go for the drive, have lunch and head back home. I was told by guests staying that they do a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday as well. I have been here twice in 2014 and can’t wait to return in 2015.
This place is a warm, cozy, hidden gem!

This review is solely for the Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival (which occurs every autumn in September and October). I have never actually stayed here and know nothing else about this place except for their excellent apple harvest festival, which I have now visited twice. Located in the heart of Shenandoah Valley, this is the perfect autumn festival to visit with family and/​or friends!
I first learned about the Apple Harvest Festival a few years ago when I visited with a group of friends. I recently re-​visited this festival with my boyfriend and we truly enjoyed our time there. In the three years that had elapsed between my two visits, not much had really changed about the festival grounds or activities.
I’ll break this review up with the activities that we enjoyed:
–Hay Ride — this was certainly the highlight of our visit for me. The hayride was very fun (and just $ 2 per person). The line was long, but they have 4 tractors that leave all at once, so we didn’t have to wait too long. The hay ride takes you through the corn mazes and past the apple orchards on the farm, well past the festival grounds. We got some incredible views of Shenandoah Valley on there. It’s a very unique experience.
–Pumpkin Patch — My bf and I selected pumpkins from here and it’s a very nice photo op too! They have pumpkins that come in all shapes and sizes.
–Apples — they have apple picking activities (which we didn’t participate in), but they do have crates of apples you can choose apples from. The apples seemed a lot fresher 3 years ago (some of the best apples I’d ever had) as compared with the rotten apples this year.
–Hay maze — They don’t have a corn maze, but they do have a hay maze. I went to it a few years ago and it wasn’t as amazing for adults as it is for kids. I didn’t go again this year!
–Food — Their food was quite tasty, but nothing too gourmet. We had burgers, mac n cheese, and coleslaw. We also had slices of apple pie. Tasty enough, but the long line (half an hour at least) was not really worth it! They also have funnel cakes (which I had 3 years ago), which were quite tasty!
–Shops — they have all sorts of interesting shops with crafts and wares. I didn’t buy anything, but it’s interesting to look around them.
I am docking one star for their parking situation, which is absolute chaos. Basically parking is a free-​for-​all and if you come at a very crowded point in the day, you might not even find some. Be very careful about trying to park in certain rows that are dead ends — you might be trapped there for a while! They really need to fix how crazy their parking can get.
All in all, we had an enjoyable experience. And make sure to stop by nearby Shenandoah National Park as well, whether you’re there to hike or just to look out from the overlook at the beauty and splendor of rural Virginia!

HELP THERE’S NO RECEPTION HOW DO I INSTAGRAM MY FOOD PICTURES???
My friends and I made a pit stop here for breakfast before hiking up Old Rag Mountain. I didn’t think we were that far from the city but we were definitely in farm central and everyone spoke with a twang.
Do not come here if you’re on a diet. But if you’re planning to burn off all the calories on a 10 mile hike right after, sure. I went to town on their potatoes and gravy. The rest of their breakfast options were solid, but nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.
The lodge itself looks very quaint and cute, but I can’t imagine myself ever actually staying here unless I seriously needed to disconnect and get away from the rest of the world.

My review is for their wedding coordinating services only. It was a less than pleasant experience overall and if I knew then what I know now I would have chosen another venue. They really put a damper on the entire process and took the fun out of being engaged and planning a wedding. Beware!

After enjoying 2 consecutive years of the Bluegrass Festival here & my husbands’ fond memories of summer camp, we ended up here after a hiking in the area. It was Fathers Day Dinner, buffet style an it made «Country Cookin’» look like the Four Seasons Restaurant. Old fried chicken, dry «country ham», mayo salads & a sorry iceberg lettuce salad with 2 cucmber slices in it. God forbid you are attempting to eat a healthy diet (as my husband & I are), there was NOTHiNG to eat. To top it off, it was 21.95 a person, 50% for kids and even though one of our kids didn’t eat anything, they still charged us! I had already left by then, as the dining room was sweltering hot (on a beautiful evening) and the windows were sealed shut.
We had lots to laugh about on the way home & will NoT be returning.

This review is for their Apple Festival.
We made the trek for their Apple Festival and it was a blast! Big bins of all varieties of apples, plus a large pumpkin patch, really made you feel like you were in the thick of farming central. Stand over the bins of apples and take a sniff –mmmmm!
The kids seemed to be having a blast in the hay maze and petting zoo. They were making apple butter and selling apple pie and kettle corn. We got lunch — and nearly every dish came with something apple-​y. I had Brunswick Stew with cornbread and apple butter and my partner had a burger and apple sauce.
There was a great banjo band playing and a lot of people playing by the stream. When I think autumn harvest festival, this is exactly what I had in mind. (The temperature the day we went was an unseasonable 90 degrees — but they couldn’t really help that!)
One star off because this place is REALLY in the middle of nowhere. Our car was down to two clicks of gas and I was scared we wouldn’t make it to a gas station. So, if you come, come prepared with a full tank because there’s none on the way.
And yes — as others have mentioned — no cell service either, so don’t count on your GPS to get you there. Map it out ahead of time!

We recently returned to this mountain getaway, to which we’ve been coming for 30 years. The main lodge is unchanged, the staff and guests still friendly, and the food down-​home and filling! I’d recommend this resort to anyone who wants to enjoy the Blue Ridge Mountains away from the hustle and bustle.

My new getaway spot! Not fancy, not new, but only 2 hours from DC and perfect for when you want to get away from traffic, noise, concrete, people, cell phones… Don’t expect your cell phone to work (a plus in my mind!) but they have WIFI, I think.
The food is Southern country style, so not great for special diets or vegans. Most prices include 3 meals a day, but I don’t see how anyone can eat all three and move. Lodging ranges from a room in the motels, to old country houses and cabins, and camping space might be available. Trails are nearby, including a gentle one right behind the main lodge. I feel completely relaxed every time I go and don’t want to come back down.

Thanksgiving dinner at $ 40 was an overpriced disappointment, not the Grave’s experience I remembered from the past. The dressing was brick-​hard and tasteless. Cranberry sauce came from a can, believe-​it-​or not, probably the same for the bean salad although it tasted okay. High points were the oysters, their homemade cole slaw, and the ham. Pie was fair but the ice cream was bland and pumped full of air. It was a production line experience. We still had fun talking to the people we met at our table, but are still trying to figure out how they get away with charging so much for ordinary food.

I went to the fall festival here (Oct 2011) The food was great, the Blue Grass music was awesome. The place is beautiful and I can’t wait to go back.

This is the second year in a row that I’ve gone here for Mother’s Day Brunch.
The brunch is pretty good, the fried chicken in particular is very tasty. Its a pretty limited menu otherwise for the buffet, consisting of 3 salads, two other sides, plus some country ham, that other people in my party were complaining was a little bit on the salty side.
This place is a little less handicapped friendly, you have to enter through the 2^nd floor dining room and there’s no handicapped parking (at least that I could find.)

Beautify surroundings, worth a visit. Just bring a picnic, though, unless you like canned vegetables, tough fried chicken and bacon bits in your salad.

Graves Mountain Lodge sits in Virgina’s Blue Ridge Mountains in Madison County. The lodge offers pet friendly housing should you want to travel with your pet big or small. The lodging ranges from rustic to more modern hotel rooms. Should you just want to get away from the hectic madness of the world then this is the place to go. Tranquil views, fresh air, good fishing and they even have horseback riding. If you feel adventurous then you can take advantage of the overnight horseback tours which offer some of the most breathtaking mountain views in the Eastern United States. The staff at Graves Mountain are the friendliest people you will ever meet and always greet you with a smile. The dining is family style and some of the best food you will ever eat in your life. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at the lodge which are served at set times. As long as you make the seating here you will never go hungry as the food just keeps coming to the table. On very important thing one must know about this area is that you are in an area that produces a lot of apples. Every meal here includes apples, apples and more apples. If you like apples your going to love apples by the time you are finished with your stay as they are very inventive in the use of apples.
PS If you are in the medical field this is not a place to set up your medical practice «An apple a day keeps the doctor away»