Under-the-Radar Things to Do Around Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia — updated August 21, 2026
Seven places on land around Smith Mountain Lake: county parks with disc golf and guarded swimming beaches, a loop trail that opened in 2024, a state park drive worth the mileage, and one bar with weekend live music. Ratings and review counts included so you can tell what is proven from what is merely promising.
Listings verified
Smith Mountain Lake spreads over more than 500 miles of shoreline, and most people experience it from a boat, a dock or a rental deck. The list below stays on land: two county parks that locals use far more than visitors do, a trail barely a year old, two state parks, and one restaurant with live music on weekends. Where the review count is small, that is noted rather than glossed over.
1. Falling Creek Park
A 36-hole disc golf course is the reason to make the drive to Bedford County, and it comes with extensive trails, an MX course, a playground and picnic shelters on the same property. The 4.7 rating rests on 413 reviews, which is a settled number for a county park rather than a fluke of a few enthusiastic weekends. Hours are dawn to dusk, so an after-work round in summer works and a winter one does not. Bedford County Parks and Recreation can be reached at 540-586-7682 for course and shelter questions.
2. Smith Mountain Lake Community Park
The public swimming beach here is the practical alternative to hunting for lake access, and it sits alongside a partly covered, accessible fishing pier with seating plus picnic shelters with grills. The park itself is open year-round from dawn to dusk in Moneta; the beach runs on a seasonal schedule, roughly 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the summer and weekends into early September. There is a per-person admission charge for the beach, and published figures differ, so confirm the current rate with Franklin County before you go. The rating is 4.7 across 482 reviews.
3. Lovely Valley Loop Hiking Trail
This 2.25-mile multipurpose loop in Wirtz opened in May 2024, which explains why almost nobody is on it. AllTrails measures it at 2.3 miles with about 203 feet of elevation gain and rates it easy, finishing in half an hour to an hour. The evidence is thin: 4.5 from 22 reviews is promising rather than proven, and the trail has not been through many seasons yet. Open dawn to dusk. Franklin County publishes a trail map as a PDF, worth downloading since the loop is new enough that signage expectations should stay low.
4. Smith Mountain Lake State Park
The largest and best-documented outdoor destination on this list, with 4.6 from 1,821 reviews behind it. The park opens daily at 8:15 a.m. and closes at dusk; the visitor center and park office run weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with extended hours in summer. The swimming beach is guarded 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday and holidays, contingent on staffing, so an early arrival on a July Saturday is the difference between a lifeguarded swim and a crowded one. Huddleston address, off Route 888.
5. Fairy Stone State Park
Worth the longer drive southwest to Stuart for the staurolite crystals, the fairy stones, that people come here to hunt for, plus a lake with a swimming beach, boat rentals, fishing and multi-use trails. The rating is 4.6 from 1,776 reviews, effectively the same standing as the state park closer to the lake. Gates are open daily 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but the seasonal services keep shorter hours: the boat house runs weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., concessions weekends 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the mercantile weekends 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The office and gift shop close at 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
6. Mango's Bar & Grill
The one sit-down restaurant here, on Booker T Washington Highway in Moneta, and the place to head when the plan is live music rather than a quiet dinner. Saturday music runs 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., with other weekend sets scheduled through the season. The 4.2 rating comes from more than 1,300 reviews, a large enough sample that it reflects a genuine spread of opinion rather than a bad night or two. Hours shift with the seasons; spring hours run 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday with later closings on weekends, so call 540-525-0134 before a late arrival.
7. Smith Mountain Cooperative Wildlife Management Area
Included for one specific reason: its western boundary adjoins the lake and takes in ten miles of shoreline, which makes it the quietest lake access on this list. Be honest about the evidence, though. Seven reviews averaging 3.6 tells you almost nothing, and the walking here is a gravel road past cell towers with fallen trees to climb over and power lines to watch for. This is ground for hunters and people who want solitude rather than a maintained trail. Check the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources site for current access rules and season dates before heading out from Penhook.
What we left off
The previous version opened with a listing simply called Smith Mountain Lake, covering the lake as a whole. That is the destination this guide is about rather than a single place to visit, and its details overlapped with the state park entry above, so it has been dropped. No chains or closed businesses were removed.