Locust Springs Picnic Area

 

Locust Springs Picnic Area is located just inside the Virginia State Line on FR 106 in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. It isn't very far from Thornwood, West Virginia. Unfortunately, this particular facility has seen better days and needs some serious attention. The sign above was very difficult to read, although one can just make out the words and numbers up close to it. The grass and weeds hadn't yet been mowed for the season, some picnic tables are rotten and moss-covered, and the fencing is also rotten and some parts broken. There are vault toilets here but no running water. Our original plan was to eat lunch here, but since there wasn't any pavilion here and the tables were wet and the campground was only a few miles away, we ended up eating there instead.

Sounding Knob Fire Tower

 

The Sounding Knob Fire Tower is a wonderful place to visit, especially if one enjoys views of the surrounding landscape from a high location. It sits just outside of Monterey, Virginia on a side road (Sounding Knob Rd.) off of US 250. The views are expansive and the experience well worth the trip on the gravel road to the tower from US 250. The pictures from underneath the cab at the top are actually better than ones taken from inside the cab due to not having the windows in the way, but the thrill of being able to see everything around this location is still awesome.

 

Confederate Breastworks Interpretive Site

 

The Confederate Breastworks Interpretive Site has a short trail from the parking lot just off of US 250 between Head Waters and West Augusta, Virginia that takes one along Fort Edward Johnson and shows fortifications made during the Civil War. The views from the overlook are also notable here.

Roanoke Mountain Picnic Area

 

This is the 500th post on Treasured Traditions! Originally, this blog was used to feature artwork from our Office Manager, June Hoffman, and me, which, at the time

consisted mostly of Megasound products used as part of clients' wedding packages. Items like ceremony memory boxes, wedding certificate frames, handfasting cords, and many other items were available and eventually June got involved with another local wedding professional who also was into artwork and they began going to art shows together to sell their creations. Once the products became oriented around less wedding-related types of items, we retired the Treasured Traditions arm of the business and for many years this blog was more or less inactive. 

Fast forward to 2017 when I utilized this space for showcasing pictures as part of #Project365, and June and I saw photography every bit as artsy as the other creations. Naturally, when the time came for me to begin posting pictures again, I figured that since I had already used this blog as the medium for that before, I might as well use it again (rather than starting up a whole new blog).

Today's post comes to us from a special location just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, on Mill Mountain Parkway. This is the Roanoke Mountain Picnic Area which used to be a campground back in the day (opened in 1966 and re-purposed as the picnic area in 2014). Melanie and I had planned on eating our lunch at the top of Mill Mountain, but the park was packed and no picnic tables were available there. We had passed this picnic area and decided to come back to it which turned out to be an excellent decision.

Jack's Creek Covered Bridge

 

This is the Historic Jack's Creek Covered Bridge near Woolwine, Virginia. This bridge is rather unique in the fact that the inside of it is covered as well as the outside. More often, I see covered bridges that leave the truss and inside mostly uncovered.