Sleep on the Blue Ridge Parkway above Roanoke, and after dark the Star on Mill Mountain lights white over the valley. Sharp Top and Flat Top crowd Abbott Lake at Peaks of Otter. The pull-offs north of town keep giving you the same view back.
Walk Mill Mountain in daylight for the overlooks and the trails, then wait for the neon. The day is on the same mountain the Parkway uses out of town.
Explore Park keeps you on the parkway for the first night, still near town. Roanoke County Parks lists the RV sites as electric only, with no water or sewer hookup, and the campground stays open all year. Reserve that site before you reserve the van. In mid-October the Anthem GO Outside Festival runs its own camping out of the primitive sites there, as of September 2026, so that weekend fills the primitive sites too.
Peaks of Otter is the ridge night farther up the same road. The NPS campground has no hookups, and length limits vary by site. The road in is the Blue Ridge Parkway itself.
Smith Mountain Lake State Park
The swimming beach at Smith Mountain Lake faces open water and Blue Ridge foothills. People come from Roanoke for a weekend on the water. The campground on the shore is how you stay.
The park page calls the lake "the second largest freshwater lake in the state," and lists van sites up to 50 feet with water and electric and no sewer. The campground runs early March through early December. For more length or sleeping space, look at RV rentals in Roanoke.
McAfee Knob
The Appalachian Trail walks a sandstone ledge out over the Catawba Valley at McAfee Knob. You hike out to that rock and you hike back. The van waits in the lot.
Roanoke County keeps the VA-311 trailhead lot small and tows anyone parked on Route 311 or the side street, as of September 2026. The county shuttle is the backup when the lot is full.
Douthat State Park
Douthat State Park at Clifton Forge wraps a trout lake in CCC stone and log work. Lakeside, White Oak, and Beaver Dam cap vans at 40 feet, and Whispering Pines caps them at 50 feet, per Virginia State Parks. Whispering Pines stays open all year, and the other three follow the typical Virginia state park season.
Natural Bridge State Park is the limestone arch over Cedar Creek, a day on I-81. Blue Hollow is walk-in tent camping only, and RVs and trailers cannot reach the sites. Cave Mountain Lake is the Forest Service campground near it, and Lexington and Blacksburg are the towns on this side of the state.
Skyline Drive belongs to Shenandoah. For nights over the state line, use Lewisburg and West Virginia. Asheville and Johnson City are the other bases.