Cave Mountain Lake Recreation Area

The Forest Service built a small lake in the Blue Ridge near Natural Bridge and let it stay rustic. Cave Mountain Lake has a swimming area with no boats on the water — no motors, no kayaks, nothing but the lake and whoever is in it — which is exactly what makes it work for families with small kids. A campground, picnic shelters, and short day-hiking trails fill out the rest. It is a Glenwood-Pedlar Ranger District operation, open early April through late October, $8 per vehicle for day use, about $20 a night to camp. The facilities are honest forest-service standard: potable water, vault and flush toilets, leashed pets, a 14-night limit. The campground is volunteer-staffed, which on this kind of site usually means someone who has been coming for thirty years and now runs the place. It sits a short drive off I-81 near Lexington and Natural Bridge — close enough to fold into a Natural Bridge day, far enough up the mountain to feel like you left the highway behind. This is the version of a summer lake day that existed before lakes had jet skis.