Weekend Adventure

Sarah and I decided to spend the day hiking and driving around some of our favorite places near Blacksburg. We started out by hiking to Bear Cliffs, which is one of the lesser known hikes near Blacksburg. Bear Cliffs is just past The Mountain Lake Resort, which is famous for being the place where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed. The hike is two miles round trip, and offers some great scenery. Unfortunately we weren't able to see the Virginia Tech campus due to the heat and humidity creating a haze, but it was still a great view.
We then drove a few miles up the road and went on a 4WD only trail. The trail was a lot of fun, and there were some great mud holes and some challenging spots on the trail. My jeep is now happy because it is covered with mud! This hole was a little challenging because I didn't find the deep spot that I was looking for and ended up sinking the front of the jeep so far that the water and mud came up over the windshield.
It was no problem for my jeep and we kept on going down the trail until we got to the Butt Mountain overlook and fire tower at about 4000 feet elevation. We stopped and took a few pictures and were lucky enough to be able to see the New River snaking through the valley below. This was the highest point on the jeep trail, so the road was all down hill and in better shape from that point on. At one point a hen turkey ran across the road and was too quick for us to get a picture of her. All in all it was a beautiful day spent hiking and driving through the National Forest just outside of Blacksburg Virginia!