Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 245: Family Legacy Meets Wilderness: The Story Behind Creeper Trail Campground
What makes Juno & Johnny with The Creeper Trail Campground a good neighbor?
Escape to the mountains with Juno and Johnny, the second-generation owner-operators of Creeper Trail Campground nestled at 3,700 feet elevation in White Top, Virginia. Their remote, family-run campground offers something increasingly rare in our hyper-connected world: genuine disconnection and immersion in nature.
As we discover in this conversation, Creeper Trail Campground isn't just a place to pitch your tent or park your RV—it's an experience carefully cultivated by a family with deep roots in the region. The campground features nine RV spots with electric and water hookups, electric tent sites, and primitive camping areas, complemented by a charming cafe serving stone-fired pizzas and breakfast sandwiches made with Juno's scratch-made dough.
What makes this destination truly special is its microclimate (temperatures rarely exceed 83°F even in summer) and its status as a certified dark zone where stars blaze against an unpolluted night sky. With no cell service and intentionally minimal artificial lighting, guests experience the increasingly rare gift of true digital detox. Parents particularly appreciate this feature, allowing children to trade screen time for creek splashing and outdoor exploration.
Despite Hurricane Helene's impact on the region—particularly the closure of the White Top to Damascus section of the Virginia Creeper Trail—the area remains rich with attractions. Visitors can still enjoy the Damascus to Abingdon trail section, explore Grayson Highland State Park with its wild ponies, fish for trout in Laurel Creek, or drive to the summit of White Top Mountain (Virginia's second-highest peak) for panoramic mountain views.
Looking ahead, Juno and Johnny hint at exciting new developments including recreational amenities and possibly music-centered activities—they encourage guests to bring acoustic instruments for impromptu jam sessions. Follow their social media for announcements as they continue to enhance what Johnny describes as "not some anonymous campground" but a genuine stay on their farm.
Ready to trade digital notifications for star-filled skies and mountain breezes? Visit creepertrailcampground.com to plan your escape to this hidden gem in Virginia's mountains.
To learn more about Creeper Trail Campground go to:
https://creepertrailcampground.com/
Creeper Trail Campground
(434) 409-4608
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I am super excited today because we've got two special guests in the studio with us today, and I'm excited. I love to camp and I'm excited to hear all about their business, which is a campground, and I'm excited. I love to camp and I'm excited to hear all about their business, which is a campground, and I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbors, juno and Johnny, owner-operators of Creeper Trail Campground. Juno, johnny, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Skip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Glad to have you, like I said, super excited to learn all about what you guys do. So if you don't mind kicking us off by telling us about your business, Sure, we're actually second generation up here and we run the Creeper Trail Campground.
Speaker 3:It's a really small, very remote campground. It's at the base of White Top Mountain and also at the beginning of the Virginia Creeper Trail. Up here in White Top we also run a little cafe for our guests where we serve stone-fired pizzas and breakfast sandwiches, and I'm a huge baker, so I make all the doughs from scratch.
Speaker 2:Mmm yum. So the Creeper Trail, that's a bike trail, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I would expect that most folks know about it already, but it's a railroad trail so they converted old railroad grade into a trail about, I think, in the 90s, and there are two sections. There's one that goes from White Top to Damascus, which is all downhill and that unfortunately got damaged by Hurricane Helene, and then the second part of it that's less seen but I'm hoping more people will start to visit is between Damascus and Abingdon.
Speaker 2:And it's a little more of a flat and open pastoral views, but also very beautiful and runs along a beautiful stream Wonderful. My son was in scouts growing up and they used to take a trip to the Creeper Trail at least once a year.
Speaker 3:That is funny, you probably have stayed with us, then Really, really, probably so, probably so then, yeah, my dad started the campground in about 2002 and he's always had a lot of scout troops up here, but we've actually, since the hurricane, we're going to be doing less scouts and we've converted a couple of our areas into places where folks can throw a frisbee or kick a ball around, so we're not going to be doing as many scouts going forward.
Speaker 2:Well, tell me, do you have just primitive campsites or tents?
Speaker 3:We're pretty small but we do have nine RV spots with electric and water. We've got an electric tent site and a lot of primitive camping as well.
Speaker 2:Nice. So if the wife isn't into an air mattress and a tent, see she's got an rv spot with water and electricity.
Speaker 3:That's that's if you don't like to camp. We've actually even had some guests who rent an rv. There's a place, I think, in chihuahua or marion, that rents out a couple rvs and he'll actually deliver it up here and you don't have to even deal with any of the setup.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's very cool. So you just it's just there when you get there.
Speaker 3:Yep, but I did want to give a shout out because folks might not be aware, but there are a lot of also Airbnb rentals up here that the families run that are popular with the Creeper Trail and we wanted to you know, let people know that they're probably not as busy as usual too, and if they want to get away to the mountains and aren't into camping, that's another great option.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well what you kind of touched on this. But how did you get into the camping business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're actually second generation. My dad started the campground in 2002. His family has been up here since, you know, pre-revolutionary war. My mom's family moved up here to get the health clinic in Conrock started. So I grew up in this area and just fell in love with the natural beauty of this place. You know the dark, evergreen forests and just the remoteness. It's really a beautiful natural area, a gem so. But my dad started getting a little older and in 2000, 2021, we took over the campground because we were just getting a little tired of that rat race and decided it'd be lovely to go up on live on the mountain. I'm really into gardening and I keep chickens as well, so it's nice to have such a big place up here to work with.
Speaker 2:Very nice, love chickens, love fresh eggs. I've got a source I don't have. I don't have any chickens I would love to have.
Speaker 3:I usually have way too many chickens. I try to restrain myself.
Speaker 2:It's hard. I'm sure it's hard. Well, what are some in the camping business? What are some myths or misconceptions? I'm sure there are some.
Speaker 3:Oh well, one thing I want to talk about is a lot of people think it's too hot in the summer to camp, and they don't realize that up here in the mountains, in White Top, we're at 3,700 feet and we don't see temperatures above like 83 degrees up here, so it's a great place to escape the heat in the summer as well, and we're less busy then as well. So that's the insider secret.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:Oh, and conversely, the misconception is it's going to be warm up here in May.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not Well, I could imagine, even at night in the summertime it probably gets a little chilly. I would think.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it drops in the 60s.
Speaker 4:Perfect, no matter what time of year you want to bring a sweatshirt.
Speaker 2:Definitely good campfire weather, for sure. I love it. I love it. Well, who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Sure, well, it's funny, we get folks from all over, but I'd say most of the folks who enjoy it up here probably come from within a three or four hour radius, which includes the folks listening to your podcast. Listening to your podcast. I wanted to do a shout out to like all the lovely attractions up here, because a lot of folks know about the Virginia Creeper Trail but they don't know like Grayson Highland State Park up here is one of the two most popular parks in Virginia because they've got the wild ponies up here and lots of above tree line hiking, which is really beautiful another thing they might not know about is the.
Speaker 3:There's some lovely fishing along us-58, which just opened back up great trout fishing small rocky streams. It's just a beautiful place to hang out and let's see. The third thing I want to mention is White Top Mountain. They probably are not aware that the highest road in Virginia actually goes up to White Top Mountain, which is the second highest peak in Virginia, and up there, if you have to have a slightly offered worthy vehicle to get up there, it's a little rocky, yeah, with a little bit of clearance, but they have 180 degree views up there, where you just mountains forever, great sunsets.
Speaker 2:Wow, Amazing. Now how far are you guys from Marion?
Speaker 3:Marion I'd say about 50 minutes.
Speaker 2:I do a podcast with the Lincoln Theater, which is in Marion, that does Song of the Mountain. They do a lot of performances there anyway. Yeah, so I'm a fan of Marion but I'm a trout fisherman as well, so I'm also obviously now a new fan of White Top Mountain because I love trout fishing, love to fly fish.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the Laurel Creek that runs along Route 58 is a gold star fly fishing area and if you park at Creek Junction you can walk up and they actually have fishing platforms there and they make it a really amazing experience for you. You said.
Speaker 2:Laurel Creek. Yes, very nice, very nice. I know there's a big laurel and a little laurel in uh western north carolina, but there's some laurels in virginia as well. So yeah, very cool I'm planning on taking up fishing this year myself oh man, well, you live in a great place for it. I used to live in central north carolina. We would go fishing at a place called rural retreat.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that's very that sounds like right down the road from us.
Speaker 4:Hungry Mother, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hungry Mother.
Speaker 3:Pantry.
Speaker 2:Nice, very nice, awesome Beautiful country, absolutely beautiful country. So, outside of work, speaking of fishing, what do you guys do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh well, my passion in life is gardening. Right now, I'm in the process of building a huge garden this year. I got a start on it last year, but this year is going to be my year for that huge, awesome garden and I'm a musician, I'm a drummer, so I uh, continually, uh always try striving to become better at it.
Speaker 2:Nice. Well, I'm a guitar player, so I will refrain from any drummer jokes. I'm a drummer too. Actually, I have a set of drums, Love playing the drums.
Speaker 3:That's cool. You should come jam with us sometime. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:That's kind of part of our pivot. I know which will be part of the next question I think you're asking us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so okay. Well, I'll go ahead and ask then. So let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it's made you stronger in the end, either professionally or personally?
Speaker 3:Well, we were going to. The hurricane, the hurricane was, I would say, the challenge that we'd have to reference.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now did.
Speaker 3:You guys have a lot of damage, we had a lot of trees down, but luckily we didn't suffer a huge amount of structural damage. But, man, some of our neighbors certainly did. But the big impact for us is that Virginia Creeper Trail, from White Top to Damascus, being closed for a while, we think, you know, I don't know how long it's going to take them to rebuild that thing, but we think it's at least a year or two. So that's kind of the challenge that we're facing right now.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, but there is a section still open though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the section from Damascus to Abingdon is beautiful and we encourage everybody to come and check that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll do our best to get the word out that it's not completely closed because, you know, I've interviewed a lot of folks in Western North Carolina, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, where, even in Gatlinburg, tennessee, where folks think that everything's closed and it's not, you know, close by Newport got destroyed. But and I live right on the Nolichucky River just across the state line in Tennessee, same as you, I had no damage to my home other than, well, I had to replace my roof, but no flood damage. I had some neighbors that were just completely underwater, like 15, 20 feet underwater. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 3:The entire downtown of Damasascus was flooded, so they they got hit pretty hard a lot of the, that's another thing. Uh, any of the, the, especially the restaurants in damascus, the shuttles, the shuttles are still running from uh abingdon to damascus. Lots of restaurants are open. They would all really appreciate anybody's business.
Speaker 2:Good to know. Good to know Still open, open for business today, today, awesome, awesome. Well, if you guys could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about the Creeper Trail Campground, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I would say that, if you're looking to get away, it's super quiet and just beautiful up here, and we've got a number of new things that we're going to be rolling out this year to make for more entertainment for our guests. We've got some cornhole bowling, we've got one of our group sites opened up so you can play frisbee or kick a ball around, and we've got a number of things that we're going to roll out, but we don't want to talk about them too much until they're actually done. So we encourage folks to follow us on social media, either Facebook or Instagram, and we're going to be making some announcements there.
Speaker 4:One little thing I would like to add is bring an acoustic instrument. There you go.
Speaker 3:Hint, hint, hint, hint.
Speaker 2:Hint, hint, absolutely, absolutely Well I I got a couple of acoustic guitars.
Speaker 3:Awesome.
Speaker 2:I'm good.
Speaker 4:I'm good, all right, I got one of those, one thing I did want to just follow up with our target audience. Anybody who wants to be in a very organic off grid camping ground with you can still camp on grass. You know, we still mow our tent sites and to certified dark zone and so the stars are literally right in your face and it's a beautiful up here.
Speaker 3:And I think another thing I didn't mention is my husband's a very talented woodworker and he's been polishing this gem up here for years and years, so I think you're going to have a much more. It's like you're staying on our farm, it's not some anonymous campground. You're staying with Juno and Johnny on our farm.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. So that means a lot. You know family owned means a lot. Locally owned means a lot to me and to a lot of folks. Plus, I think you probably get a lot of return business, I would think, because people get to know you and trust you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what we're going for is we want we want the campground to be the focus and while you're here you get to do some really fun, cool stuff like Grayson Highlands or hike on the AT or go up on White Top or do the Creeper Trail. But we really want everybody to be like, yeah, that stuff's all fun for the two or three hours that we go off and do that, but we're really here for the campground, you know, for the experience of just really being organic and there's no street lights here or can't bring a headlamp because we don't light up our road or anything.
Speaker 3:It's also a place where you can let your kids run around and play in the creek a little bit and just have a little more of a country experience that they're not necessarily going to get if you're living in the suburbs get away from some screen tone.
Speaker 2:there's no cell service up here, awesome.
Speaker 4:A lot of parents love the fact and they hide the fact that we do have Wi-Fi available, but they just tell the kids nope, no Wi-Fi today. You're acoustic all weekend.
Speaker 2:There you go, all acoustic. Well, it's one of the reasons I like to go fishing, because most of the places where I trout fish there's no signal. So you know if I'm going fishing, I'm going fishing. You know, I'm completely unplugged, so that's awesome, sounds awesome to me and you. You touched on this a little bit, but for those of us who want to learn more, want to come check you guys out and learn more about what new stuff you got coming up, how can, how can we do that?
Speaker 3:new stuff you got coming up. How can, how can we do that? Just uh, we have a pretty good website, uh, creepertrailcampgroundcom, and if you go there it'll point you to our Facebook and Instagram If you're interested in seeing some of the new announcements.
Speaker 2:Facebook and Instagram. Awesome, all right, very good. Well, uh, juno, johnny, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed chatting with you and learning all about the Creeper Trail Campground. Like I said, I've been there before, but it's been a long time. My son will be 30 in January, so it's been a while. But anyway, I appreciate you guys taking time out of your busy schedule and your garden. I hope that goes well for you. I'm a gardener too. I love it too, and so I hope yours goes well this year.
Speaker 3:We do as well. I'm fighting slugs right now, but hopefully I'll win.
Speaker 2:You'll win. You'll win, but I do appreciate you being on the show and and wish you and your family and your guests and the Creeper Trail Campground all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, absolutely Glad to have you. Maybe we can have you back sometime when you got some new announcements to make.
Speaker 3:Ooh, that sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks so much. Talk to you guys later.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.