Stiles Falls

Friday, we took Harper and Amaroq to Virginia for a long weekend.  Our first stop was at Alta Mons Camp near Shawsville.  After parking at the visitor center, we hiked through the camp and got on the waterfall trail following Purgatory Creek upstream.

There were some nice wildflowers blooming along the trail.

We saw bloodroot and trilliums and the redbud was blooming throughout.

There were three creek crossings on the trail but it was pretty easy, even carrying Harper.  At the end, we had to scramble up the rocks to see Stiles Falls.

It's a nice 40-foot waterfall with cool rocks and a nice shallow pool. 

It's very nice of the camp to allow public access.  After enjoying the falls, we headed back.

From here, we drove to Happy Hollow Gardens Park in Roanoke County.  The azaleas were starting to bloom but it was definitely before peak.

After walking down the boardwalk, the trail turned to natural surface and there were lost of wildflowers blooming.

There were some nice patches of phlox.

And lots of redbud flowering.

We got on Old Logging Road and headed up to Burgess Cemetery.

Big Oak Trail made a loop past a large oak tree.

We finished off our short hike taking Chestnut Trail back down.  

There was a large bullfrog in the little creek here.

From here, we headed into Roanoke and got dinner at Cast Plates and Pints and ate outside with Amaroq.  Then we checked into the Holiday Inn for the evening.