Staunton River State Park has 11 distinct trails, though a few are only accessible via others. They range in length from a small cut-over and accessible trail at 0.2 miles to a 8.6 mile River Bank Trail.
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We are not part of the roughly half of Americans who believe in ghosts. (Various surveys report between 40-60% of Americans believe in ghosts.) So, when US Ghost Adventures contacted us to see if we’d like a complimentary ghost tour in one of several cities, my natural inclination was to decline. But then I thought, what the heck, why not?! Neither of us has ever gone on a ghost tour before, so we had no preconceived idea of what to expect.
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This was truly an entirely hiking-filled vacation, and the highlights were the gorgeous views of the lake within the park and surrounding mountains, particularly from Molly’s Knob, offering a sweeping view.
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Smith Mountain Lake State Park is located in southwest-ish Virginia, about 40 minutes east of Roanoke, 2.5 hours southwest of Richmond, 3 hours north of Charlotte. The lake itself is a man-made reservoir of immense proportions. The shoreline measures 500 miles and the lake is 40 miles across. In fact, in 2023, Travel + Leisure magazine, called Smith Mountain Lake (SML to locals) the “Lake Tahoe of the East”. The shoreline is dotted with homes for both locals and vacationers and is a popular spot for people to rent houses.
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Fallingwater Cascades, located off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Bedford County, is located just a few miles north of the popular Peaks of Otter area. This trail is 1.0 miles in total length (down and back) and runs along the cascades with pretty views of the cascades themselves and small pools of mountain water. The trail is entirely a descent to the base of the cascades followed by an ascent back up with the total elevation change of about 365 feet. This area is particularly pretty in the spring and fall.
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Abbott Lake Trail is located about 50 minutes north of Roanoke, VA, in Bedford in the heart of the area known as Peaks of Otter, and is located right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more information on the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which travels through Virginia and North Carolina.
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Sharp Top Mountain Trail is labelled - appropriately - as strenuous. The trail does flatten out a little bit at points along the way but it is a steep upward climb, gaining over 1300 feet in elevation in 1.5 miles. Large segments are basically carved rock stairs. One way to think about this in a different scale: this is basically like climbing 130 flights of stairs over a 1.5 mile distance.
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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!
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Burkes 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.
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Having 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.
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With 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:
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We 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.
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We 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.
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When 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.
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Breaks 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.
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Smith 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.
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Horsepen 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).
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Booker T. Washington was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1856, into the so-called Peculiar Institution of American slavery. At the tender age of 9, Booker and other slaves on the Burroughs family plantation were freed, and Booker began a journey that would make him a well-known and important figure during the Reconstruction Era.
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Apple Orchard Falls is located in the Buchanan area of Botetourt County, Virginia, about an hour-long drive from downtown Roanoke along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. Based on our reading, it appears the waterfalls are accessible from two locations: uphill and downhill from the falls. We personally accessed the trail from the higher elevation entry point along the Blue Ridge Parkway. That trailhead is easily visible from a scenic overlook spot, about 7 miles north from Peaks of Otter, a well-known spot in the area.
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Read Mountain Preserve is a 243-acre forested area of land placed in a conservation easement to be enjoyed by the public. On our first visit, we hiked a 3.5 mile loop trail up to Buzzards Rock. On our return trip described in this post, we hiked a 4.6 mile loop. We've now hiked nearly all the paths in this park, except the green trail, which is a cutover between a couple of others.
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