Impressions of Southwest Virginia*

While Hillsville is home, Southwest Virginia offers some entertaining fodder for day trips.
In nearly 11 years, I've developed some impressions of these places — with my faithful dog pulling me along on the end of her leash.
At the risk of sounding like a tourism official, here's my notions about the places, going from west to east:
• Bristol — I've seen enough to know I'd like to be able to spend more time in the Birthplace of Country Music to learn more.
At about a 100 miles from home, it's almost out of comfortable range for a day trip.
• Abingdon — It's like one of those model Christmas villages complete with brick Colonial architecture, spread throughout the older parts of town, plopped down west of the mountains.
• Just north of Marion is Hungry Mother State Park, originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, home to miles walking trails and nature watching, an amphitheater in the middle of a manmade lake, and an earthen dam with perhaps the most painstakingly built spillway known to human engineering.
The strange name of the state park arises from an unusual story, as you might expect.
• Burke's Garden — Home to a collapsed mountain, as I understand it, this hard-to-reach, ridge-ringed bowl-shaped rural community owes its living to farming and tourists.
Also known to some as "God's Thumbprint."
• Bluefield — Now the tallest incorporated locality in Virginia, Bluefield is a coal dust-covered railroad town.
• Damascus acknowledges that it's a trail town, and that's the way I've seen it, going downhill on the Path of Least Resistance, by which I of course mean the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Bikers can get up to a good clip going down where the old railway used to be and take a look at beautiful natural vistas to boot. The only other thing I remember about the pleasant village of Damascus is that I caught a van back to...
• Whitetop — For a little place near the summit of Virginia, there's a bunch of things to do here.
Besides the aforementioned trail, Whitetop also hosts the hilarious Ramp Festival; the tasty Maple Festival; the tallest mountain in the state; nearby Mount Rogers State Park, probably the highest park in Virginia; Wayne Henderson's Music Festival; and the crossing of the Appalachian Trail.
The people in Whitetop sure know how to throw a get-together.
• Independence — Pamplona has the running of the bulls, Grayson's county seat has the state-sanctioned running of the privies.
• Fries — Historic mill town now without the mill is, of course, where the New River Trail State Park begins.
Perched on the side of the beautiful New River, Fries offers recreation to outdoor lovers. And with many pending projects underway to expand on those recreational opportunities, Fries still has many good days ahead.
• Galax — Mountain music with the largest and oldest fiddlers convention anywhere. 'Nuff said.
• Hillsville — I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I'm happy to call the town and Carroll County home.
• Floyd — A quirky, hippy-flavored, artsy but also traditional town that's managed to carve out an identity all its own.
• Christiansburg — Shopping capital of the New River Valley. Also home to a rec park with a frisbee golf course on a landfill with the more trees than any other such pitch in the world.
• Blacksburg — Ivory tower of the mountains. Go Hokies.
• Roanoke — Metropolitan in the Blue Ridge, Roanoke has a charming downtown, centered on the Center in the Square, and a good park system, including neon-starred Mill Mountain, an unexpected outdoor treasure in the middle of a medium-sized urban environment.
That, in a few words, is what I know about Southwest Virginia. I'm looking forward to days when I can grab my maps and my Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail Guide and calendar of events and learn more.  

* Impressions may not exactly match reality.