Ridges to Roanoke

 

The mountains change from eastern Tennessee to Virginia. The Appalachian Range grows more jagged and omnipresent as borders breeze by. The tree-covered ridges grow more prominent. The road closes in. Autumn feels more firmly entrenched. The hills hide towns older dating to the early 18th century.

 Just across the Tennessee border, we followed roads flanked by cold, spring-fed creeks up into the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. Autumn colors rimmed the town of Damascus and the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 30-mile recreation trail that cuts through mountainous terrain. We took a creekside walk, watching the waters slowly drop into the valleys below. It might have taken minutes, but in these rough foothills, it felt like ages in a cathedral of trees slouching toward winter.

We didn't take the Blue Ridge Parkway, in part due to time. It seems as if the parkway would be best traveled if it were the centerpiece of the trip. We had a lot of Virginia to cover in our week away from Nashville, and would get plenty of high scenic vistas from Skyline Drive. 

Pallas cat

The sun broke open a cloudy morning just as we reached Roanoke, the biggest town on the spine of the Blue Ridge. A brief drive through downtown rose to Mill Mountain, which looms 1,000 feet above the city of about 100,000. The park complex at its peak is home to several attractions, including our first stop, the Mill Mountain Zoo.


The local zoo specializes in Asian animals and has a large number of predators, especially cats. From a high perch, a Pallas cat yawned and buffered itself against the mountaintop wind. Who could skip a black tufted-ear marmoset, a tiny primate, in the middle of a busy afternoon?

Grooming vulture

For many crepuscular and nocturnal predators, these were the drowsy hours. The wolverine, cougar and Canadian lynx slept in well-camouflaged spots. The red panda was nowhere to be seen.

Other animals were active but troubled. A fishing cat paced around his enclosure, straining in captivity. A snow leopard woke from its slumber and began meowing mournfully, its tone strikingly similar to the average house cat. It was the saddest sound of the trip.

I can’t leave out the birds. Vultures from the Caucasus Mountains groomed, carefully hiding their beaks under feathery collars. At an aviary at the center of the zoo, scores of exotic birds mingled inside the netted walls. As the clouds moved over Mill Mountain, they added needed splashes of color.

Despite its size, the Mill Mountain Zoo was more than worth $7 for the variety of Asian animals. Before leaving Mill Mountain, we walked to Roanoke’s famous electric star. Standing 100 feet tall, the metal star was the city’s long-running symbol.

Below the mountain, we explored one of the city’s other long-running symbols, the Historic Roanoke City Market. On a Saturday afternoon, it was a bustling place, with vendor tents lining the streets and the permanent storefronts a hive of activity. We had a quick sidewalk lunch of fish tacos at Quesos (Mexican restaurant names confound us sometimes --- how well would an American fare restaurant called Cheese do?).  Naming aside, the tacos were great.

We made our first splash into the Virginia wine culture at a Eli’s Provisions, a well-stocked beer, wine and cheese shop. One taste of CrossCreek Petit Verdot and we were sold on the different character of Virginia wine. We stockpiled some reds and whites for the trip and for home.

From Roanoke, we raced the bleeding daylight up to Luray, turning off for the mountain pass as the night elbowed out the last hints of color. The historic town of New Market passed in a blink as we ascended on a road that grew darker by the mile. We followed a winding route through the Massanutten Mountains, passing the town’s famous caverns and the small commercial district. No longer used to night driving, my eyes struggled on the dark roads but the town’s edge, found the neon blaze of the Hillside Motel. The motor court caught our eyes during trip research and had to be our base camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Roanoke from Mill Mountain

We arrived too late to survey the landscape of Page Valley, but the wood-paneled room and its porch railings decorated with cornstalks and pumpkins were the perfect tonic to wipe away all those impersonal highway hours. A group of hotel guests surrounded the fire pit next to the pool closed till spring. We sat on the porch with some wine once the fire burned out, toasting to the mountains and the still Shenandoah night.