Pennington Gap, Virginia: Stone Face Rock

It is right at a mile from light. You will pass "something" Poor Valley Road on right just before. the "Stone Face Food Mart" sign is gone. There will be a closed gas station on right and across the street a closed store. If you made it to the train bridge, you've gone too far. Park at closed gas station, get out and turn around.

A little hard to locate. Used our GPS to "get close." Then when our GPS was telling us to go one way, and the road sign said "Pennington Gap" another way, I stopped and asked a worker at a gas station. She "sorta" knew what I was talking about, and told me which way to go - but didn't know the exact location. So we followed her directions and stopped at the next gas station. The workers at the next gas station didn't know what I was talking about.

Luckily there was an older policeman in the store and he knew what I was talking about.

I suggest stopping and asking for directions when you get to Pennington Gap. The biggest tip for locating it is to look for the closed gas station with a sign out front for "Stone Face Rock Food Mart." Stop there. Get out of your vehicle and turn around and *poof* -- there it is.

On US Hwy 421 just north of Pennington Gap, Virginia, is the Stone Face Rock. Somewhere around the mid-1970s the name was changed from the definitely un-PC "N*Head Rock." My grandmother still has a collector plate from the 60s with that name on it.

Geologists have studied it to determine if it is natural or perhaps an Indian-made monument. It's become the landmark symbol of my hometown. In the 1980s a local girl wrote and recorded a song about the Stone Face that was played on local radio from time to time. As I remember, it was pretty bad.