Located six miles (10 km) south of the northern entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesboro, Virginia, Humpback Rocks stands out from many other mountain summits in the Blue Ridge due to its exposed rocky summit, in contrast to the heavily vegetated peaks of surrounding mountains.

About 400 million years later, during the Catoctin Formation, basaltic magma was deposited, forming a layer of greenstone over the granite.

Approximately 700 million years after the Grenville Orogeny, the Iapetus Ocean began to close, resulting in the Alleghenian Orogeny, where slabs of granite and rock were transported westward and eventually thrust up over the limestone bed around it, forming Humpback Rock and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Notable is the rock fence, reputedly built by slaves of a plantation owner, that separates the gap and Greenstone Overlook.

Hickory, chestnut and oak trees provided nuts for food, logs for building and tannin for curing hides, while the rocks were put to use as foundations and chimneys for the houses and in stone fences to control wandering livestock.

A map of the Blue Ridge Parkway including Humpback Rocks can be found at the Texas Library webpage.

Camping is available nearby in the Sherando Lake Recreation Area in the George Washington National Forest off the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles south.