The Roanoke Valley - Your Summertime in the Sun Solution!

The Roanoke Valley - Your Summertime in the Sun Solution!

With the resources presented to you, make this summer one of the most memorable for your family right here in the Roanoke Valley!

School is almost out, gas prices are not what they used to be and summer is just around the corner. What should you do to plan a fun-filled summer? Make plans to discover the treasures right in your own backyard. A diversity of outdoor recreation, sporting events, festivals and attractions come well packaged within the framework of the Blue Ridge Mountains. So let’s play ball at an Avalanche game, hike the Appalachian Trail, see a concert at Roanoke Festival in the Park, take a dip in the Lake or get out your patchwork quilt and have the ultimate picnic chalk full of fried chicken, PB & J sandwiches, potato salad, watermelon, apple pie and lemonade.

Relax a little! No need to drive very far it’s all here!

Where to start? Let’s begin outdoors …. Roanoke is one of the few cities that has its own mountain, (Mill Mountain) and there is a national park just under 15 minutes from downtown. On the east side of the city is the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and on the west is the 2,000-mile-plus Appalachian Trail and the Virginia-to-Oregon Trans-America Bicycle Trial.

If you want to see the Appalachian Trail at its very best, make a 7-mile round-trip hike to McAfee Knob, just 20 minutes from the heart of Roanoke. You are up so high that you get the feeling that you are standing on the wing of an airplane.

To the south are Smith Mountain and Leesville Lakes, which offer more than 25,000 acres of water-related recreation. Fish, water ski, rent a houseboat, hang out a while at the State Park beach or take a cruise on the Virginia Dare.

To the north of Roanoke, the 1.6-million acre George Washington and Jefferson National Forests stretches across the horizon, its mountains and valleys offering camping, hunting, hiking and fishing for trout. Virginia has more than 2,800 miles of trout streams.

You can ride bicycles on our greenways network or drive home a birdie at one of our challenging yet breathtaking golf courses. Take a float trip on an inner tube along the New River, climb rock outcroppings or relax in a State Park log cabin. You can watch an incredible variety of birds along the loops of Virginia’s new Birding and Wildlife Trail, one of the most energetic undertakings in the nation.

Visitors as well as residents will re-discover our railroad heritage at the Virginia Museum of Transportation exhibiting one of the largest collections of rolling stock in the East including the Class J611 and 1218 Steam engines.

Pick up your own copy of the 2005 Roanoke Valley Visitor’s Guide. Stop by the Center between 9:00am and 5:00pm daily or call (800) 635-5535 and visit their website. www.visitroanokeva.com