The Smith Mountain Lake Dam is one of the largest dams in the United States, and the process to build it required extensive engineering and time. Six years passed between the start of construction and the first generation of electricity (1959-1965), though the lake itself didn’t fully fill until the following year. The dam itself is over 800 feet long and 235 feet long. It’s tall enough to have a 17-story elevator built into the dam itself!
Read MoreKouchibouguac National Park is at the heart of Acadian New Brunswick. Situated along the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and with the Kouchibouguac River running right through it, the area is filled with the life and ecology common of an estuary. With hikes along the water, in the woods, and through bogs, there are a variety of sights to take in. Like many other similar areas along the eastern seaboard, the area is also home to sated mosquitoes so come prepared.
Read MoreNew Brunswick, Canada, has a total of two national parks - Fundy and Kouchibouguac. So, if you are an avid lover of the outdoors and find yourself in New Brunswick, visiting both just makes good sense! Fundy National Park is situated along the southern coast of New Brunswick, perched above the Bay of Fundy. Kouchibouguac National Park is also coastal but along the eastern side of the land, near the confluence of the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
Read MoreFundy National Park sits along the Bay of Fundy, which is famous for some of the highest tides in the world. Depending on the exact spot, the difference between low and high tide fluctuates between 15 and 48 feet, roughly the height of a 4-story building!
Read MoreThe drive from southwestern Virginia to New Brunswick, Canada, is no easy feat. An optimistic Google map will proclaim the drive to be 18 hours in length, but that estimate is built for the travel of future bots; real humans have to stop to eat, use the bathroom, caffeinate, and replenish the gas in their cars. Oh, and there will definitely be traffic, perhaps some passing rainstorms to slow traffic. There is a border crossing where every question feels like a trick and a trap and an honest answer to the questions will gain you a free pass to a (friendly but time-eating) secondary screening (true story, more below).
Read MoreWe decided to visit New Brunswick with an itinerary built around two of Canada’s National Parks: Fundy National Park, situated along the southern coast on the world famous Bay of Fundy, known for some of the highest ranges of tides (the difference between low tide and high tide is about the same as a 4-story building!), and Kouchibouguac National Park, along the eastern coast of the province. In the more northern and much more French speaking Bertrand area, we got a glimpse into the history of the Acadian people in Canada, the country’s Francophiles who were booted off their land and out of the country during political upheaval.
Read MoreCanaan Valley (pronounced kuh-NANE) is a beautiful valley in the northeastern portion of the state. It is known for being the location of Blackwater River and its eponymous state park, an area with a number of ski/four-season resorts (while it’s known for the Canaan Valley Resort, there are others), home to Dolly Sods Wilderness, and neighbors the towering peaks of Seneca Rocks. If you like the outdoors, this is a spot to add to your list!
Read MoreNew River Gorge National Park is one of the newest spots to earn the national park designation, which it received in 2020. While there are endless options for how to spend time in the area, and you’d need a lengthy trip to take it all in, a well-planned two day visit can still render visitors in awe of the area’s grandeur. See a quick overview immediately below with any more details and driving route maps when you read on!
Read MoreI feel like we’re not alone when we say sometimes it is easier to plan a trip halfway around the world than to take the time to visit somewhere within driving distance of home. For years, we have talked about visiting the New River Gorge area as well as other spots in the Canaan Valley vicinity: Seneca Rocks and Dolly Sods. At half a day’s drive, this shouldn’t have taken about a decade in the making, but it did. In fact, it took us so long that by the time we visited, New River Gorge had joined the national park system, the 63rd park designated as such in 2020.
Read MoreBurkes Garden is an unexpected find.
A couple of years ago, Dustin was looking online at a map of our greater region - Southwestern Virginia - and spotted a place on the map that looked geologically interesting. And that is how Burkes Garden came to be on our radar.
Read MoreHaving exhausted most of the trails in Breaks Interstate Park, we considered finding a new place to hike on our last full day and found a few trails that piqued our interest in Pikeville, KY, at Bob Amos Park. I already knew that Pikeville was having its annual festival (none other than Hillbilly Days) but figured a hike nearby would be okay and also allow us an opportunity to check out Pikeville. When we looked online for park info in the morning and - thanks to Google - saw that the park was exponentially busier at that moment (at 8am) than normal, we realized the entire area was probably tied up with the festival. So, change of plans.
Read MoreWith temperatures set to soar to the mid-to-upper 80s (yes, in Virginia and Kentucky in mid-April!), we planned a morning hike and an afternoon drive in Breaks Interstate Park. Like the prior day, we looked at the trail map and concocted our own version of a multi-trail loop: Tower Tunnel Overlook (0.2 miles) to Prospector Trail (1.5 miles) to Ridge Trail (0.5 miles), and 0.8 miles back along the road to our car for a total of a 3-mile hike over the course of 2 hours 15 minutes.
Read MoreWe decided to start the morning off with our own created loop trail route, which we became quite good at during our time at Breaks Interstate Park! This loop-of-our-own-creation was a combination of four park trails, totaling 3 miles.
Read MoreWe decided to check out a bunch of the scenic overlooks to enjoy them and also identify good spots for sunrise and sunset trips in the future. We started first at Towers Overlook, inside the park entrance, and got our first real look at the huge massive rock formation that is left as softer rocks eroded away over time. The Towers, as it is called, jets out from nearby mountains and is almost entirely encircled by the Russell Fork River. The general formation looks a lot like the more well-known Horseshoe Bend in Utah. In fact, both of these canyons are about 1,000 feet deep.
Read MoreWhen you embark on a trip with three dogs to a state park where you need to bring your own linens and food, packing the car is a noteworthy activity. A successful car loading looks like this: all of us in the SUV with the ability to see out the back window. That, of course, is the finished product.
Read MoreBreaks Interstate Park, located in a rural section of the mid-Atlantic on the border of Virginia and Kentucky is smack dab in a beautiful, mountainous region with undulating mountains and hills spanning out across the two states, and a 1,000 foot deeply cut gorge called Breaks Canyon. The river that runs through the canyon is one of the deepest east of the Mississippi, one of several places colloquially called The Grand Canyon of the East.
Read MoreSmith Mountain Lake State Park is in Bedford County, Virginia, about halfway between Roanoke and Lynchburg. The park is situated on the north end of the large body of Smith Mountain Lake, which itself spans both Bedford and Franklin Counties with a small bit in the southeast falling in Pittsylvania County. We live on the east side of Roanoke, closer to the lake, and the drive is roughly 45 minutes, so it is a very doable trip to get some hiking in or otherwise enjoy the amenities on a beautiful day.
Read MoreOur 11-day road trip that would carry us across international borders twice started with a couple of days in Vancouver before we headed to Washington state and ultimately north again to Banff.
Read MoreHorsepen Trail is part of the large Carvins Cove Natural Reserve in Roanoke, Virginia. The cove is comprised of over 12,000 acres and includes a 630-acre reservoir. It is nestled in the Roanoke Valley near Tinker Mountain and has pretty mountain and water views, depending on your exact spot. The Reserve is half in Roanoke County, half in neighboring Botetourt County (pronounced bot-uh-tot).
Read MoreWhen I dream of hitting the road for an extended road trip to just go and explore without any time constraints, I mostly picture spots out west. It makes sense. There is ample open space, more solitude, fewer cities. I often picture spots from this particular trip - most particularly Banff, in Canada’s Alberta province, nestled in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
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