Biking

Nestled in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Highlands, the New River Trail State Park offers 57 miles of green. With most of the trail running under a lush  canopy of trees, and the presence of two invitingly dark tunnels, the  low-grade, crushed-stone trail provides a pleasant summer ride. Its  proximity to the New River, which is actually one of the world’s oldest  rivers (geologically, speaking), also offers prime opportunities to cool  off with canoe, kayak and tubing trips, or a simple dip in the water. 

 The Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail is a  34.3-mile rail-to-recreation trail, traversing through two counties from  Abingdon, Virginia, through Damascus, and ending just past Whitetop Station in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, at the Virginia-North Carolina border. Today, the trail corridor lies half on federal land managed by the US Forest Service and half on property owned by local governments. In the 30 years since its opening, the Creeper Trail remains one of the country’s premier rail-trails, honored as the inductee into the 2014 Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Hall of Fame and a recipient of numerous local, regional and national accolades.