Old Rag is the most popular hike in Shenandoah National Park, and since 2022 it has needed a day-use ticket on top of normal park admission. That catches people out, and so does the parking. Here is how it works, from people who live at the bottom of the mountain.

Please check the National Park Service page before you travel. The rules have changed more than once since ticketing began, and the Park Service is the only authority on them. Everything below was checked against their pages in September 2026.

The hike in numbers

• 9.4 miles for the full circuit
• 2,348 feet of climbing
• About 7 hours 30 minutes is the Park Service’s average
• Rated very strenuous — their words, not ours

What you need

Two separate things. A day-use ticket for Old Rag, required for every person, whatever their age, and a Shenandoah National Park entrance pass, which is separate and covers the vehicle. An America the Beautiful annual pass covers the entrance fee but not the Old Rag ticket. The ticket costs a couple of dollars a head; the Park Service has listed it at both $1 and $2 on different pages, so take the price on the booking page as the current one.

When tickets are released

Tickets are required from 1 March to 30 November. Outside those dates you do not need one. Up to 800 people are admitted per day, released in two batches:

• 400 tickets, 30 days ahead of the date you want to hike
• 400 tickets, 5 days ahead

Both batches go live at 10:00 a.m. Tickets for the season generally start becoming available in the first week of February, and each ticket is valid only for the date on it.

How to buy one

Online through Recreation.gov, in advance. You cannot buy an Old Rag ticket at an entrance station, and you should not count on buying one when you arrive: there is almost no mobile signal at the fee station, so have it downloaded or printed before you leave the house.

The 30-day release is the comfortable one. The 5-day release is useful if the weather turns or plans change, and it is worth checking, because people do cancel.

Parking is the real constraint

The main Old Rag Trailhead parking lot is currently closed. Shenandoah National Park began infrastructure work there on 4 May 2026 and expects to finish by November 2026, so everyone is using the overflow lots in the meantime. Check the Park Service page for the current position before you travel.

A ticket admits you to the trail; it does not reserve you a parking space. The Park Service warns that parking is limited on weekends in October, and Saturdays especially. If you are driving up from Washington or Charlottesville on the morning of the hike, you are arriving at exactly the same time as everyone else.

How hard is the scramble, honestly

Harder than people expect, and that is worth knowing before you commit a group to it. The first stretch is a steady climb on switchbacks. Then comes roughly a mile of genuine rock scrambling along the ridge: hands and feet, not just a steep path. There are several tight squeezes where a bulky pack has to come off, and a couple of moves where a shorter person will want a hand from someone above.

None of it is technical, and thousands of people do it every season. It is slow, it is exposed in places, and on busy days you will queue at the narrower spots — but do not talk yourself out of it. We have taken children as young as six up the scramble and they loved it. They were used to hiking, which is the real test: not age, but whether your group is comfortable on a long day with hands-on sections and a few tight squeezes.

If anyone is genuinely uneasy about heights or has knees that object to a long descent, read the next section before you decide.

If the scramble is not for everyone

Take the Berry Hollow approach from the south instead. It climbs to the same summit on the Saddle Trail and skips the ridge scramble entirely. It is shorter and far less dramatic, which is exactly the point if you have mixed abilities, and you still get the view. Groups sometimes split: the scramblers go up the Ridge Trail, everyone else comes up from Berry Hollow, and they meet at the top.

Dogs cannot come

We welcome up to three dogs at all three houses, so this one matters: pets are not allowed on the Ridge, Saddle or Ridge Access trails on Old Rag. Service animals are the exception.

That does not have to cost you the hike. If your dog is happy in a crate, you are welcome to leave them at the house for the day. Bring your own if you can — ask us in advance if you need one and we will lend you a crate when we have a spare, though we cannot promise, since it depends whether another guest has it. Otherwise one of you can stay behind, or pick a hike where dogs are welcome: Nicholson Hollow is a fifteen-minute walk from Trailside and Foothills, on leash.

What to bring

Proper footwear with grip, not trainers and certainly not sandals. More water than you think, especially in summer. A headlamp or torch, because a slow group can still be on the mountain at dusk. Some food. A small first-aid kit. And a paper or downloaded map, since you will have no signal.

Start early. On a summer Saturday the difference between a 6am start and a 9am start is the difference between a quiet mountain and a queue.

Why we mention all this

Our three houses sit within fifteen minutes of the trailhead, two of them close enough to walk. Guests who stay here do the thing that makes Old Rag pleasant rather than stressful: sleep nearby, start at first light, and be on the summit before the crowd arrives. We send the current ticketing details with every booking confirmation, and we will tell you when the release dates land.