Mill Creek Nature Park

Normally when I hear the word "nature park," my mind jumps to thoughts of easy dirt walking paths, crying children in strollers, and poorly behaved doodle dogs on flexi leashes.  However, I took a trip to Mill Creek Nature Park at the recommendation of one of the commenters on this blog and was pleasantly surprised.  Although dubbed a "nature park," this system is home to some gorgeous waterfalls, steep trails, and a fantastic single-site campground.  The added bonus?  We didn't see a single other soul while we were there on a quiet winter Sunday.

Although we didn't traverse the entire trail system, the nature park seems to have two separate trail systems; one set of extremely well marked loops (the lower loop was all woods, with no views) and another system that is less well marked, but took us to a campground and some gorgeous waterfalls.  I think that we would have found an overlook if we had wanted to add a few more miles to the hike in the second system.  It's not too far of a drive from Blacksburg either.

You can see a trail map for the second trail system here:
http://virginiasmtnplayground.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BaseMap.pdf

We hiked from the parking area to both waterfalls via the butternut, waterfall, and catwalk trails.  We then retraced our steps to the juncture of the catwalk and waterfall trails, this time continuing on the catwalk trail until reaching the butternut trail and bearing left. The waterfall and catwalk trails were steep, albeit very pretty

We also did the easy lower loop trail which can be seen on a map here: https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7036283

First waterfall off of the catwalk trail

Casey at the first waterfall

Casey and I at the first waterfall

The second waterfall was tougher to photograph, but this is a bit of it.

Tinker Cliffs - Long Overdue

I'm usually a little bit delayed in posting my hikes, but this is a bit extreme even for me.  I took some friends and colleagues up to Tinker Cliffs back in September and realized that I never posted about our expedition.  It was steeper than I remembered, especially at the steepest part for a few tenths of a mile, but that's likely a direct result of my relatively sedentary desk job that takes up most of my week.  

Group at the top.  

Sarah, Bryan, and Nyko

Casey and I at the peak