Fred Clifton park is right next to Lovers Leap and actually has a superior view. It has a good…read moreparking lot, picnic tables (with grills, I think), paths through the woods and wooden overlooks. There are signs to beware of bear. There are black bear in this area. Hikers should be aware that there is also a trailhead for a hiking path over by the Lovers Leap parking. Look for a big boulder covered with grafitti.

Smith Mountain Lake is my 33rd VA State Park. Its not one of my Favorites because, after my…read morechildren are grown, I really dont play in the water. I may swim in a pool but I dont jet ski, or boat, or fish. I dont like to buy food from the food shacks and it seemed to me, the space allotted for swimming was small anyway. They did have hiking trails. I took a two mile trail hike, took pictures and started on my way to James River SP.

Came back again and stayed in a waterfront cabin this time, and it's well worth the upgrade! The…read moreview was great and the bedroom faced the water with a picturesque double window complete with blinds to limit or highlight the scene! Osprey were nesting, which was amazing!! Trails were beautiful, and since we were just weeks from peak season, it was still quiet and peaceful, but with gorgeous spring weather!

My husband and I like to hike so on our recent visit to Roanoke we started exploring options. We…read morelearned that McAfees Knob is the most photographed spot on Appalachian trail. We were a bit nervous about an 8 mile hike, but decided we were going to take it on. That hike was no joke, it kicked my butt. However, I did it and I am not someone in amazing shape by any means. There were some very steep/uphill parts and some stretches that were mostly flat. Trail was well marked. I was happy for the variation and we stopped as needed. It is doable, its just long. They say it takes you about 4 hours, which was accurate for us as we arrived around 10am, finished about 2pm. We did the AT trial up and decided to go for the fire road (runs basically parallel but isn't as strenuous) back as we were already tried. I highly recommend this if you not a serious hiker. Most everything I read kept saying you need to get their early as it gets so busy. That wasn't our experience, but it was an unseasonably colder, windy day so that probably deterred people. We also went on a Thursday to help reduce crowd as recommended. Note there are no bathrooms near parking. We found an outhouse near one of the camping sites about 2/3 way up, which we were grateful for. I am not sure it is being maintained regularly, so bring your own TP and hand sanitizer. Now, the view once you get to the top is absolutely beautiful. You can see out so far while you sit/stand on the rocky overlook. I even slowly inched my way out to the very tip of the rock to get the full 360 view. Breathtaking! We brought some snacks to eat up there to replenish (do this) and enjoy the views. We didn't stay up there as long as I would have liked as it was quite cold with the wind when we no longer had the tree cover. Dress appropriately! After we finished the hike, we took a long nap at our Airb&B. I am not sure I would choose to do it again, but I feel very accomplished that we completed this trail and enjoyed the views and our picutres very much.

What an awesome hike. Our new Thanksgiving tradition has been to go on a hike and this was our pick…read morethis year. We got there around 10am since it's a 3 hour drive from Charlotte. I thought it would be empty on Thanksgiving, but it was pretty crowded. We got a parking spot just fine, but the lot was fairly full. The hike is rated as strenuous, but I thought it was moderate. It's about 4 miles to Mcafee Knob from the parking lot making it 8 miles round trip. We took the Appalachian Trail on the way there and the fire road on the way back. The fire road is flatter and wider--an easier hike overall. Parts of the AT were covered in leaves making it a bit hard to hike. Everyone says the last mile is hard. It's uphill but I didn't find it to be too steep. The views at the end are gorgeous. Luckily it wasn't too crowded and we didn't have to wait to get our picture. We didn't stay at the top long because it was incredibly windy which made it pretty cold even though the rest of the hike was comfortable. The whole hike with stops took us just under 4 hours. With views and difficulty combined, we thought it was a great hike!

Took swimming classes here these past two weeks. The instructors genuinely care about their…read morestudents of all ages. Only complaint is that the supervisor on duty had us students and the instructor in the water while a thunderstorm was in the area. Once the thunder and lightning came, she had us get out of the water then. I commend the instructors though.

Amazing just amazing great experience but the snack bar was pretty bad the funnel cake fries were…read moresoggy. But over all it was good

This is a big park and it has a lot to offer. Once you enter on 3rd Street from Pittsvylania, you…read morecan either turn left for picnic tables or go straight for the kids playground, basketball court, baseball field, and more picnic tables. The park runs along Roanoke River, where you can fish. There is plenty of parking. If you go to the left to sit at the picnic tables, you can hear the traffic from Pittsylvania Ave, but it's not that bothersome. There is also a walking trail at the river and dog poop bags available. We came to this park with our dog after picking up food to-go from Yamazato in Hurt. It was the perfect place to have a picnic lunch. Besides the light traffic from the main road, it was pretty peaceful.

Great place for walking, exercise, a picnic, anything really. They have bathrooms, and a water park…read morefor kids. There's a nice river on the side of the park, there's a rope swing to go swimming. Fun place!

When I visited, it was the end of the school year, so there were lots of photo shoots happening in…read morethe Hahn Horticulture Garden. Of course there were: This is one of the most beautiful spots on the Virginia Tech campus. The garden is six acres of beauty, and it's a wonderful place to wander around and look at all of the plants and flowers and trees. Perhaps you can also relax at one of the benches that are placed hither and thither. The garden serves as a resource for the students to learn about horticulture, landscaping concepts and environmental stewardship. But it's also just a nice place to sit and relax. I like a good bridge over a pond, and they have that here. The pond has lots of koi fish in it, which I was told an egret will sometimes make a nice meal out of. (Poor koi!) Such is life, though, I guess, right? There are also trellises to walk under, brick paths to walk down, statues to gaze upon, and Adirondack seats to sit in. I saw a couple of students working on their laptops in the garden, which you can do because the campus wifi is also accessible in the garden.

The university has a constructed garden kind of on the edge near where the academic buildings end…read moreand the sports start. It has a variety of interesting plant life and the pond was filled with some lively fish. It's not a major destination like the botanical gardens and arboretums I've seen at some other universities, which was a bit of a surprise, but it's a nice place to stop through.

Now this is a unique "park" where it's not easy just to find where the trail begins. BUT once we…read morelearned why it's called 'Explore' Park, our first visit here became absolutely engrossing. After turning into Roanoke River Parkway from Blue Ridge Parkway, drive past several lookouts and the park entrance. Keep driving past Arthur Taubman Center on your left and down a gravel road where you'll eventually find the parking lot for the 'explore' part of this park. At least two entrances exist, and it doesn't matter which one you start on since the trails meet, crisscross, and loop. Just watch out for signs along the way. I like that it's a trail in a natural setting with lots of trees, but what really makes this park unique is the endless stone and wood structures and buildings you come across randomly throughout the trail. It was actually so bizarre and mysterious that I didn't even think to take any pictures. There's a house that used to be a family home but is now empty, and you can take a peek inside since all the structures are inaccessible to visitors. We came on a weekday, and the only other people we saw were kids in the parking lot and a person walking their dog. Okay, slightly spooky this place, but I wouldn't want it any other way...well, maybe if we could walk inside the buildings it'd be even more fun.

It was so fun and I love zip lining thank you so much for your service I had so much funread more

This is a great park with plenty to do. Inside Dan Daniel Park you will find soccer fields,…read moresoftball fields, a skate park, a playground for the young tikes, picnic shelters for rent, the Veterans Memorial of Danville, a stretch of the Danville Riverwalk Trail and also you will find the baseball stadium for Danville's minor league baseball team the Danville Braves. The stretch of the Riverwalk Trail is really cool here. The nice paved path runs along the banks of the Dan River where you can take nice stroll on foot or by bike, the have a bike share station where you can rent a bike to ride by downloading an app on your smartphone and by following a few instructions on the app you'll be 2 wheelin' it down by the river in a jiffy. They also allow horseback riding on the Riverwalk Trail. This is a really nice oark to check out.

The perfect stop in a long road trip from Manassas VA to Jacksonville FL! Amazing play structure…read moreand a shaded spot to eat. Beautiful clean park with nice clean bathrooms! Loving Danville and will definitely be returning in future road trips