Grayson Highlands

I cannot recall a more stunning view than this overlook at Grayson Highlands State Park near Mouth of Wilson, VA. My friend Cathy, from last year's Dan River trip, suggested we stay here and ride the Virginia Creeper Trail and explore the extraordinary terrain enclosed by the park. As with earlier trips, we are reliving spring in hillsides of mountain laurel now punctuated with flame azalea and some early rhododendron.

I had not heard of the native flame azaleas when I moved to North Carolina back in the late 70s. Being from Indiana, I wasn't familiar with azaleas period. When my friend, Caroline, was a soil conservation agent in the early 80s, she was selected by the Soil Conservation Service to be part of a team sent to the mountains to explore tree damage due to acid rain. She and others hiked deep into mountain woods with core samplers and brought back soil laid down many years back to track changes in pH. She was stuck up there over several weekends and invited me to join her for one of them and gave me a wonderful driving and hiking tour of the mountains around her childhood home. That is when I first encountered these native beauties and I have been enchanted by them ever since.

In addition to the wonderful flora in the park, Grayson Highlands is also home to several herds of wild ponies. There is a lovely dog trot log cabin that houses a camp store at the entrance to the park campground. Cathy popped in with a trail map to ask the ranger about the best places to hike. I was standing the in the cabin breezeway listening as the ranger said things like, "Take this trail to see the laurel, this trail to see the view", etc. Then she said, "And this trail overlooks the meadows with the wild ponies". At that point, I interrupted as the wild ponies were certainly NOT in the meadow, they were trotting through the parking lot towards the campground.

For the next couple of days we enjoyed peeking out of our camper at them and also enjoyed them

peeking in the camper at us. To the right, you can see this little fella's daddy, the infamous stallion (about the size of a Great Dane) Fabio, famous for his long white mane and tail, and apparently also famous for leading his crowd through the meadow fences.

Along with hiking, we had also come to ride the Virginia Creeper Trail. The kids, Mary Fletcher, and I had ridden it last year but it had been several years since Cathy had been. I'm not sure how she did it, but she ordered up a beautiful day for us, jacket weather cool and dry. Damascus, VA, our point of origin this year, is about 27 miles from the park but the roads are so winding, it took a full hour to arrive, and a good 30-40 minutes to go back up the mountain by van to begin the ride down. The Virginia Creeper Trail is named for the Virginia Creeper train that wandered these hills bringing people and supplies to remote mountain towns. It is a rails to trails project starting at a park at White Top Station and continuing downhill 17 miles back into Damascus, and for the truly hearty, another 17 miles beyond that.

So there are several outfitters in nearby towns. Last year, we were carried in from Abingdon. At White Top, van after van unloads riders and bikes so you think the trail would be as crowded as the parking lot the whole trip down. Not so. To me, the most amazing aspect of this ride is that despite the crowds at the start, everyone travels at their own speed and you may spend considerable time alone riding through deep, rich woods.  There are rest stops, a gift shop, bathrooms, and a great local restaurant about 2/3 down the trail. That day, a local church was having a hot dog sale. We enjoyed our lunch in the restaurant but when we biked past the church group we almost wished we'd waited.

But besides the well-placed conveniences, the woods, creeks, waterfalls and rocks are the real reason to come here.

The Creeper Trail also includes a short strip of the Appalachian Trail and we saw many folks with their backpacks headed to and from the outfitter in Damascus where we'd gotten our bikes. I had read Cheryl Strayed's book, Wild, and recalled reading about her dehydrated meals and how she craved candy and sweets when she got to a trail shop. When we ended our bike trip, we took some time to explore the outfitter and found a wall of candies, lots of lightweight camp clothing, gadgets and gizmos of every description, and two walls of dehydrated foods. Soups I was expecting. Dehydrated ice cream sandwiches I was not. Nor was I expecting a great sale on end-of-season athletic shoes and a great pair of turquoise trainers that fit me!

The rest of the weekend was spent walking in the park. It includes a preserved local homestead outfitted to accommodate weddings and family reunions, stunning rock formations, the aforementioned overlook, horse stables (bring your own horse) and miles of bridle trails. And miles and MILES of dry stacked rock fences. To think of the labor and the love. My late husband labored and loved to rescue a cabin like this and dry stack rocks for the foundation. It was good to feel him near.