Category: Virginia
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Driving to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 It’s a 7-8-hour drive to the Smokies from Charlottesville, depending on how you go and where you are going, but Martha wanted me to break it up, so I booked a night in Highland Haven Campground outside Roanoke. I went down 29, which is pleasant enough. You just have to be…
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Interstate 81 to Baileyton KOA
Saturday, August 7, 2021 We were on our way to Cades Cove Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for two weeks. The first week was with the “the grandchildren”. They really are friends, Karen and Nathan’s children who we have known for a long time. We like to take them for a week…
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Bluegrass Valley to Saltville
My mission today was to follow the North Fork of the Holston River traveling southwest through the Bluegrass Valley to Saltville on Rt. 42. Here is what the Virginia Division of Wildlife Resources says about the North Fork below Saltville, “From the town of Saltville downstream there is an exceptional smallmouth bass fishery. It routinely…
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The Seven Sisters Trail
OK, I didn’t look hard enough at the hike descriptions, but I had been driving all morning through beautiful Thompson Valley and I needed to stretch my legs. Starting in the campground, the sign said it was a 5-mile hike, which I thought was perfect, but that doesn’t include walking another 2.7 miles on the…
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Tazewell County
June 8, 2021 I had several goals for the week. One was to visit Burke’s Garden. Two was to explore, float or fish the Clinch River. Three was to check out other trout streams in Tazewell, Wythe and Bland Counties. I started out the morning following the Clinch River from Tazewell to Claypool. Rt. 460…
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Cavitt’s Creek Park, North Tazewell, Virginia
June 6,7,8, 2021 I stayed three nights in Cavitt’s Creek Park while exploring Tazewell, Bland and Smyth Counties in SW Virginia. The park grounds are well-maintained and beautiful, with a stocked lake for fishing, boating and swimming. I did not explore Cavitt’s Creek below the dam and I didn’t hike the trail around the park.…
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Burke’s Garden
“God’s Thumbprint”, “Vanderbilt’s first choice”, “Garden Spot of the World”, or as the locals call it, simply “The Garden” are impressive titles for an area I have wanted to visit for a long time. As the story goes, James Burke camped here with James Patton in 1750, burying some potato peels. Another party camping in…
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The Breaks Interstate Park, 2
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 We had a hard rain in the night that continued into the morning, which made us relax and take it easy. By noon it stopped and we were ready to get out. Brooke and Pam had recommended the Geological Hike, so we took it. Once hunting grounds for the Cherokee and…
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Breaks Interstate Park, Virginia/Kentucky
We crossed some big mountains driving from Abingdon to Breaks Interstate Park, then some winding, narrow roads through coal country, where you quickly see the difference between a hollow and a valley. A hollow, or holler as they are locally called, is just a narrow crease in the mountains with coal mining houses filling the…
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Abingdon, Virginia
Saturday, May 16, 2021 The Farmer’s Market in Abingdon is as good as any we have seen, and there are many temptations. Every booth offered good things; fruits, vegetables, farm eggs, goose eggs, duck eggs, meats, ciders, yummy Greek pastries, cookies, cakes, coffee, donuts, honeys, jams, canned goods, crafts and more. We all loaded up…