VIRGINIA

We breakfast with truck drivers from the Flying J truck stop and then head west toward Burkes Garden. We enter the Jefferson National Forest and stop at Big Walker Mountain lookout to buy souvenirs. We haven't even left Virginia! Next we climb Garden Mountain on a bumpy, windy one lane gravel road with many switchbacks. We stop at the Appalachian Trail on the top of the mountain and hike with the dogs to a nearby peak. We wind down into Burkes Garden which is a ten mile by five mile crater created 200 million years ago by a meteor. The crater is the highest valley in Virginia at 3,200 feet and very fertile with many springs. It's all farm land with a population of about 260. It got it's name from James Burke who did surveys of the area in 1740. He planted some potato peelings at one of his camps and the next year settlers found a thriving potato patch. It has the only camel farm in Virginia. George Vanderbilt wanted to build here in 1810 butnobody would sell to him so he went to Ashville, NC and built the Biltmore.

Big Walker Country Store

Tower at the country store.

Big Walker Lookout

View from Big Walker Lookout.

The Appalachian trail.

Snow covered view.

Dixie hiking the Appalachian trail.

Walker Gap

Frosties on a cold morning.

Mitch hiking the Appalachin trail.

View of Burkes Garden.

Burkes Garden, VA