Flag Rock offers a variety of recreation activities, including mountain biking and hiking, fishing and paddling, and rock climbing and bouldering.

Flag Rock Campground is an 18-site campground that is open annually (spring to fall).

Flag Rock Recreation Area was dedicated Oct. 12, 1974. The story of how the American flag came to be posted atop the rock pillar dates back to the 1920s when a German immigrant is said to have climbed atop the rock and erected the flag as a symbol of love for his newfound home.

Click the button below for an article from Virginia Town and City that describes the dedication of the recreation area.

View a map and brochure for Flag Rock Recreation Area.

Norton City Council has designated Flag Rock Recreation Area a Green Salamander Sanctuary. Click the below button to learn more about the green salamander and how Flag Rock came to be a city sanctuary for this small amphibian.

If walking the gravel footpath to the Flag Rock Overlook in Flag Rock Recreation Area, you can’t miss the giant statue of a Bigfoot-like creature located just beyond the parking area.

Known locally as the Woodbooger, the city erected the statue and Norton City Council designated the recreation area a Woodbooger Sanctuary following a visit by Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot TV show. In 2011, the show spent a week in Southwest Virginia filming an episode that features scenes from High Knob, as well as Washington County, Damascus, and Saltville.

Since then, the city has embraced this mythical creature, with local businesses selling Woodbooger merchandise and the creation of the Woodbooger Festival. The festival is held each fall in Flag Rock Recreation Area.

The Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument Storywalk Trail is a two-mile loop with 10 interpretive signs celebrating the cultural, historical, medicinal, and economic impact that Appalachian forest botanicals have long held for a diversity of people and animals.