My gift from my son was a day trip the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. He wanted to take me to Poor Farmer's Market near River of Dan. It's a tourist place just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I took some pictures. More to follow.
Beautiful scenery, @Shirley Martin ! I am glad that you were able to enjoy the trip, and it is a wonderful gift from your son, for sure.
How far is it from where you live, Shirley? Looks like southern New Mexico, except the trees are pine.
I wanted to go to that area numerous times but never had the time and the money at the same time. Never did get to go. Beautiful country. Great gift.
I live not far from there...about 60 miles east of the northern terminus. I should get off my lazy butt. (I used to camp at Skyline Drive all the time.) Did you go to any of the accommodations around there? Are there places open to eat and make rest stops? What are those places like in today's masked world?
Beautiful pictures, and this is my neck of he woods. I was raised 7 mi from the BRP, first house was 3 miles away, and now I live 8 mi away. Biking, hiking, camping, and traveling the BRP has been most of my life. Wife and I traveled to Wintergreen on parkway for 20 yr. when my daughter played in the summer music festival there. When I attended Mars Hill College in N.C. I used to travel home on the parkway (got on at Ashville, and off at Roanoke). Don't know about elk, but plenty of deer, and bears around the mountains close to Wintergreen.
The only place we ate up there was at was Poor Farmers Market. They were open and serving food. Some people wore masks and some didn't. We both wore masks. We didn't eat there because the roads may have been freezing back quickly. We got sandwiches and ate them on the road. There were still icy patches on the road and some water on the roads that would have frozen soon.
Cody, I'm not sure that they have elk there but they have been reintroduced in the Smoky Mountains in NC. We saw some on our last trip there.