Burke's Garden, Virginia

May 1, 2024

We've been very fortunate to have had great weather for our travel days so far this year, and the streak continued for this trip as well--we had clear blue skies and about 80 degrees. It was a long-ish trip, though, with a stop for grocery shopping, a construction delay, and lots of windy roads. So we were pretty tired upon arriving at our campground near Wytheville, Virginia. 

Almost missed getting the obligatory welcome sign shot

We did a lot of up and down through the Appalachian Mountains. Fortunately, our breaks did just fine!

Lots of pretty countryside in these parts

Our campground was probably the most "ok" campground we have had so far this year. It would have been better if someone hadn't gone around randomly with a flame thrower a couple of weeks prior to our arrival. We get that forests need to be managed with controlled burns, but we've never seen it done in a campground before. And it seemed so haphazard to us. But, we aren't forest experts, so what do we know?

The carnage in the foreground were wild roses, judging by a couple of survivor leaves. Maybe they are considered invasive here?

The dogwood tree behind us was spared the torch 😊

Tuesday was a mostly drizzly day in the afternoon, but we did get out in the morning to walk the campground nature trail.

More scorched earth --glad to see they spared the path

Some lucky violets

Don't know what these flowers are, but they were tiny

This part of the forest escaped the wrath

The next day, we headed out to Burke's Garden, located in a valley at the top of a mountain. It lies in a massive bowl formed by a mountain collapsing in on itself over time. This unique geology is responsible for a depression measuring about 8 miles by 4 miles and surrounded by mountain ridges.  Due to its relative isolation, it is sparsely populated and mostly consists of small-scale farms. An Amish community of about 100 persons as well as a few other inhabitants currently call it home. We made the 1-hour trip up the mountain on scenic windy roads so that we could ride our bikes along the quiet country byways.

The first adjective that comes to mind when encountering Burke's Garden is "bucolic".  The other thing that came to mind for Julie was the theme song from Little House on the Prairie. 

Burke's Garden is on the other side of that mountain

We stopped at the General Store to get some treats and buy some jam.

At times it was so quiet, the only noise we heard was the cows chewing on grass

This was a short stay for us (only 3 nights). So, off we go tomorrow again!

There is a google group email list which can send you an email when there is a new blog post. Instructions for signing up here: Subscribe OR directly join here: Google Group