Pocosin Cabin

Pocosin Cabin is a one-room square-log cabin in Shenandoah's Central District, rented to the public for overnight stays. It is locked and requires a reservation, so treat it as a place to stay rather than an open shelter or a museum you can drop into. It sleeps up to eight on three double-decker bunks.

From Skyline Drive, turn onto Pocosin Fire Road at mile 59.5 and walk 0.2 mile down a gravel road, then take the short connector to the porch. If Skyline Drive is closed, the hike-in becomes 2.1 miles. You still carry your overnight supplies from the road, so this is a simple hike-in stay, not a drive-up cabin. There is a covered porch, an outdoor fireplace, a picnic area and a nearby privy for cabin guests. Check the operator's current equipment and water notes before packing.

As you approach, the cabin's roofline and stone chimney rise above the grass; pause on the fire road for the clearest look at how it sits in the trees.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the cabin in winter 1936 through Camp NP-3, also known as Baldface. The log walls were fitted before being hauled to the site, and the cabin opened on October 24, 1937.

The cabin takes its name from the Upper Pocosin Episcopal mission ruins, less than a mile away. Reverend Frederick Neve built the mission in 1902. The word Pocosin, also written Pocosan, may come from an Algonquian word meaning roughly “swamp on a hill,” though that origin is uncertain.