New Video, Old Trip.

I compiled images and video footage from a 2013 trip. This was a nice visit to Grindstone Campground in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in southwest Virginia.

I'm not sure who invented the concept of the National Recreation Area, but it was a good idea. It creates a park-like construct within an area that probably deserves National Park status but for which the political will is lacking to create a new Park. So what you get is the combining of existing recreation infrastructure into a larger unit, some of which is run by various government agencies, but all of which is under the guiding hand of the National Forest Service or the National Park Service.

One drawback is that a National Recreation Area does not have the protections of a National Park, but they do offer wonderful access to campgrounds, trails, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, etc. In my region, one of the best of these is the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. We've been visiting it for many years and I have still not come close to seeing all of the features I want to see.

Our Casita at Grindstone Campground.

Much to see and do!

Happy Trails!

Various photos from some of my hiking and backpacking trips. Just the trails, thanks. If I can recall where I took each one, I'll list it. (Let's see how well the old memory works.)

The Big Butt Trail, Black Mountains.

Trail in Big Ivy, Pisgah National Forest, Black Mountains.

Birkhead Mountains Wilderness.

Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Dolly Sods Wilderness.

Panthertown Valley, North Carolina.

Mount Rogers area, Virginia.

Kubrabow State Forest, West Virginia.

Appalachian Trail, Round Bald, Tennessee.

Avalanche Peak, Yellowstone National Park.

Mount Washburn, Yellowstone National Park.

Blue Lakes Trail, Mount Sneffels Wilderness, Colorado.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Switchbacks leading up to the Continental Divide, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

Mount Rogers Recreation Area

The Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in southwestern Virginia has been, historically, one of our favorite places to vacation. Yesterday Carole and I got up very early in the morning and headed out to make a day of it up there. We didn't want to make it a one-day excursion, but because Carole had to work Monday evening, it had to be so.

That said...my days of spending six hours driving to enjoy eight hours of hiking are over. The stress of driving that far in one day, coupled with walking around the forests and ridges are just too much for this old man. After we got home I ended up sleeping for over ten hours. No more of that. Next time we go somewhere like that we're going to have to make it a two-day trip.

If you live here in the South and you've never been to southwestern Virginia, you have missed a tremendous amount of beauty. Carole and I have been vacationing there off and on for decades and we still have many, many places there to see. We're headed back in late August, so we'll be able to chisel off a few more of these spots on our way to exhausting the list.

This trip, however, was to scope out some good places to park our travel trailer for our vacation in August. Carole will spend the days at camp while I got wandering around the high country and in search of waterfalls (the area is packed with waterfalls, most of them on no published list that I have ever seen).

Here, then, are some photos from our day trip.

The high, open country is the main reason people flock to this recreation area. Because of this, the high meadows can actually get crowded with humans. Rubbing elbows with people is not why I go to the wild places.

As I was hiking around the forests around Grindstone, I was reminded that this is the tail-end of ramp season! So I scurried around in the forest floor looking for this relative of the garlic. In no time at all I had a fist full of them ready to be grilled in aluminum foil over the coals.

Carole in the summit of one of the Pinnacles in Grayson Highlands State Park.

Oh, my Appalachian high country!

Hardwood forests trying to recover from the rape of timber companies.

Fiddleheads! Edible, but I've never tried them.

Carpet of wildflowers on a high ridge.

A typical Appalachian stream.

In a few more weeks these rhododendron blossoms will be truly gorgeous.

Mountain Land

Carole owns several acres of land high in the mountains near the North Carolina/Virginia border. We have long thought about building a small cabin there. We haven't been up in a while, but every time we visit we walk  around the property looking for likely building sites.

We generally have two options.

There is a high ridge at roughly 4,000 feet that, if partially cleared, would afford us a fantastic view across a vast valley toward Virginia's highest summit, Mount Rogers. This has always been an appealing choice for us.

But there are also very nice spots where we could situate a cabin below the ridge, surrounded by beautiful hardwood forests and backed by a rock garden and thick growths of Catawba rhododendron. This is an attractive alternative, and one which we like more every time we go to the land.

This is probably my favorite spot on the property.

Looking up the steeper slopes toward the top of the ridge. If we put a place up there, we could see Mount Rogers from a potential front porch.

Andy meditating below the natural rock garden.

Andy walking along the gravel access road beyond the private gate.

View from the access road before arriving at the locked gate.

Enjoying the forest.

Someone put up a deer stand right at the property line. We're not sure if it's on our side or the other. Either way, if we put up a cabin, no one will have any luck hunting there.