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Pockets of Paradise:
Great Walks In Great Blue Ridge Towns
Hikers are accustomed to directions that read "continue along the river through new-growth forest." But add instructions like, "from Main Street descend to the waterfall," and even the most seasoned hikers might wonder where they are. They are lost all right, in the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge that knows no limits, not even city limits. Many cities scattered throughout the region have maintained pockets of paradise near or in the heart of town.
BY LYNDA MCDANIEL |
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Reedy River Falls Historic Park.
In Greenville, S.C., it features a 40-foot cascade
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Reedy River Falls Historic Park
Greenville, S.C.
Just a stone's throw from Greenville's Main Street, a 40-foot cascade of the Reedy River rushes and roars over huge boulders into the gardens below. The falls mark the birthplace of the city above, where in 1770 Richard Pearis built his trading post and grist mill. From this first permanent settlement sprouted umpteen skyscrapers and shops full of workers and customers who regularly enjoy this natural haven. Thousands of joggers, bikers, walkers and bench sitters take advantage of each season's offerings in the five specialty gardens gracing the 25-acre park. A fern garden, rock garden, wildflower meadow, cascade garden and spring falls garden offer everything from a desert-like environment to lush greenery hugging the water's edge. The meandering river and winding paths run throughout the park, linking the Peace Center for the Performing Arts at one end with Cleveland Park and the Greenville Zoo at the other.
The park, however, has not always been a wonderland. It was rescued in 1967 from layers of trash and overgrowth by the Carolina Foothills Garden Club with support from the City of Greenville, Furman University and the Planning Commission.
Cottage Cuisine is a favorite lunchtime spot, set in the historic Falls Cottage, a restored 1890-era house with perennial gardens at the park's entrance. The most coveted seats in the house are on the deck overlooking the park, even on a sunny winter's day. Open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., they serve homemade soups, sandwiches, salads and desserts.
Reedy River Falls Historic Park, S. Main Street and Camperdown Way. Open during daylight hours. For more information: Greenville Visitor Center 864/233-0461 and 1-800-717-0023.
 Riverpark
Chattanooga, Tenn.
The term urban park is perhaps best defined by Chattanooga's Walnut Street Bridge. As in any other park, you can walk, run, stroll, sit on benches, enjoy seasonal flowers, and gaze at a swirling river as it heads toward the sea. The difference is this park doesn't have a square foot of terra firma. Sitting as high as 108 feet above the Tennessee River, it is a 2,370-foot truss bridge, making it the longest pedestrian walkway bridge in the world.
Like a bright blue tiara, the Walnut Street Bridge crowns Chattanooga's expansive 20-mile Riverpark below, seven miles of which have not been completed. Several phases of this ambitious project are complete, notably the four-acre, $10 million Ross's Landing Park & Plaza, completed in 1992. Composed of a series of landscaped bands that interweave public art and native plantings, the Plaza also offers access to the Southern Belle, a sightseeing and dinner cruise ship that serves some of the best meals in Chattanooga. Then walk the Riverwalk, a connector between parks and attractions like the $45 million Tennessee Aquarium, Hunter Museum of Art, and neighboring bluff-top galleries and cafes. En route you'll pass an artfully landscaped amphitheater that is one of four sites for musical entertainment during the nine-day Riverbend Festival. This annual event (each year in June) features headliner musicians, a children's festival, the Bessie Smith Strut (the largest block party in the South), ethnic food, fine artists, craft artists, and a grand finale of fireworks. Keep walking and you even pass an archaeological site at Bluff Furnace, the first coke-fired blast furnace in the region. Eventually the Riverpark will extend from Chicamauga Dam through the downtown to the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River.
Some sections of Riverwalk are open 24 hours, others dawn to dusk. Walnut Street Bridge is open 6 a.m. to midnight daily. All are 100 percent handicapped accessible.
For more information: Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2 Broad Street, Chattanooga, Tenn. 37402. 1-800-322-3344. www.chattanoogaFun.com.
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Ijams Center.
The Museum and Nature Center are a highlight of Knoxville's Ijams Center.
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Ijams Nature Center
Knoxville, Tenn.
Only three miles from the center of town, this 80-acre nature center looks and feels like the heart of the wilderness. A city park and community nature center, Ijams has foot trails winding across streams, meadows, fern banks and past bluffs overlooking Fort Loudon Lake. An abundance of wildflowers, grasses and native trees provides cover for four-legged inhabitants like turtles, raccoons and muskrats, to name a few. It is also a bird sanctuary with 40 species nesting and many others passing through.
In addition to peaceful repose, the center is a hotbed of learning - from a series of nature trails and composting workshops to slide talks and activities for schools, scouts and other organizations. Pick up a Discovery Trail map and explore a variety of habitats on this 30-minute walk past 14 instructional stops explaining how sinkholes sink, hemlocks breathe, and ground water becomes rain.
Wildflowers abound - trillium, spring beauty, jack-in-the-pulpit in the spring, then cardinal flower and asters in the fall. Paved or mulched paths dotted with benches make the strolling easy, and trees along the way such as hackberry, persimmon and sassafras are marked in braille and English.
A new 14,000-square-foot museum featuring snakes, turtles, frogs and other small reptiles shares quarters with park offices and a gift shop worth noting - a thoughtful collection of items for the home and garden celebrating nature. A variety of fun items are priced for school childrenšs budgets.
Ijams Nature Center. 2915 Island Home Avenue, Knoxville, Tenn., 37920. 423/577-4717.
Grounds are open year-round, 8 a.m. until sunset. The museum is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday noon to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m. The Serendipity Trail is wheelchair friendly.
French Broad River Park
Asheville, N.C.
Maybe it's the gazebo and its cupula crowned with a heron-in-flight weather vane. Or the collection of delicately shaped trees lining carefully landscaped paths circling river's edge. Somehow it feels different here, back to a time when men sported boaters and ladies twirled parasols.
Just a short drive from downtown, the 26-acre French Broad River Park is really a park in progress with much already in place and even more to follow. A parade of talent starting with a lone visionary to a long line of community luminaries - foundations, garden clubs, government agencies - have collaborated to make this dream a reality. The first phase was dedicated in September 1994 and includes walking trails, two observation decks over this oldest of rivers (named not for a crusty Parisian but for the direction it flowed - west toward French-owned land), a gazebo, custom-designed benches and grilles, and stone restrooms. A one-half-mile loop trail of 10-foot-wide asphalt is complete, and the first of six 300-foot-long wildflower beds is planted with ceramic tile markers for plant identification. (Public art using indigenous materials is big in this small park.) Currently two new projects are being designed - a new outdoor classroom over enhanced wetlands and boat access and fishing facilities. North Carolina Fish and Wildlife has charged RiverLink, the organization spearheading the river's redevelopment, with designing these facilities which will become the prototype throughout the state. An additional 1,900 feet of trail is being completed this spring west of the existing park. French Broad River Park. Amboy Road at Riverview Drive. Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information: Asheville Parks & Recreation: P.O. Box 7148, Asheville, N.C. 28802. 828/259-5800. RiverLink: 828/252-8474.
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The Virginia Creeper Trail.
Begins just two blocks from Main Street in Abingdon, Va.
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The Virginia Creeper Trail
Abingdon, Va.
This 34-mile rails-to-trails conversion offers hikers and cyclists, families and friends easy access to the natural beauty of southwestern Virginia through a trailhead only two blocks off Main Street in the heart of Abingdon's historic district. The Virginia Creeper Trail began centuries ago as an Indian footpath. Later it was used by pioneers, including Daniel Boone. By early this century the Virginia-Carolina Railroad was hauling lumber, iron-ore supplies, and passengers, earning its nickname - Virginia Creeper - from the steam locomotives that struggled up the steep grades. But 100 trestles and bridges, sharp curves and steep grades made it hazardous and uneconomical to operate, and the Creeper crept to a halt in 1977.
Today those very features are what make this trail so popular. The old wooden trestles and bridges offer spectacular vistas (and a railing for safe keeping) from high above the rivers and valleys below. Shrubs, trees and wildflowers surround the many creeks and rushing water along the trail where a careful observer can spot beavers building their dams. One-half mile down the trail, a small park with tables and a green area for lawn sports is a popular spot for picnics and family outings. There are also a number of restaurants and delis near the trail where box lunches can be purchased. Street bikes and mountain bikes are permitted on the trail, and bike rental and shuttle services to and from Whitetop Mountain (the highest point on the trail, 33 miles from Abingdon) are available throughout the week, year-round, by appointment. There are regularly scheduled shuttle services on the weekends from April through October.
While the public legally has the right to use the trail, most of the actual land between Abingdon and the Iron Bridge east of Damascus is privately owned. This means visitors need to stay on the trail, close gates, respect property owners and livestock and be courteous to landowners and other trail users.
The Virginia Creeper Trail. Pecan Street off Main Street in Abingdon, Va. Parking facilities are located next to the trail. The Virginia Creeper Trail is open year-round from dawn to dusk.
For more information: Abingdon Convention & Visitors Bureau, 335 Cummings Street, Abingdon, Va. E-mail: acvb@abingdon.com. Website: www.abingdon.com/tourism. 540/676-2282, 1-800-435-3440.
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The view of downtown Roanoke is one of the treat's atop Mill Mountain.
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Mill Mountain Park
Roanoke, Va.
Mill Mountain Park is hard to top. Almost 1,000 feet above Roanoke, this historic park features three spectacular overlooks, plus Mill Mountain Zoo, and an 88-1/2-foot-tall man-made star. Other features in the park include picnic tables, a new 1.7-mile trail back down the mountain, a three-mile horseback spur trail to Roanoke Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and a 1/4-mile pedestrian walk connecting the three overlooks. Two overlooks spotlight downtown Roanoke and the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond. The zoo's overlook faces west toward less urban vistas.
For 250 years, the 1,747-foot mountain has played a role in development and recreation for the region. The park was named after the grist mill established by Mark Evans in the early 18th century. The 25-room Rockledge Inn once sat atop this summit. An amusement park and cable car lift were also once part of the mountain. Today the area bustles around the Mill Mountain Zoo with its 40-plus species of exotic and native animals on a 10-acre site. Winding pathways and observation areas provide close viewing of a Siberian tiger, red pandas, golden-lion tamarins, tree kangaroos and reptiles.
For more information and other routes to the mountain: Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, 114 Market Street, Roanoke, Va. 24011. 1-800-635-5535.
Mill Mountain Zoo. Open year round except December 25, admission charged. 540/343-3241.
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Historic Downtown Walking Tours
Feel like more walking? All six cities offer walking tours of historic sites and attractions.
Greenville. Tour includes historic sites in the downtown plus discount vouchers for downtown lunch and/or shopping. Tours Around Greenville, Cherron Saad, 864/467-8088.
Chattanooga. Historical and Architectural Tour covering 25 historic sites along Market Street and Georgia Avenue. Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau, 1-800-322-3344.
Knoxville. Stop by the Knoxville Convention & Visitors Bureau and let them customize a tour based on your individual interests. 1-800-727-8045, 810 Clinch Avenue in the World's Fair Sunsphere.
Asheville. The Asheville Urban Trail features more than 50 stations along a 1.6-mile course telling the story of a particularly prosperous period in Asheville's history between 1880 and 1929. Asheville Visitors Center 1-800-257-1300.
Abingdon. A Walking Tour of Main Street featuring 31 historic buildings. Abingdon CVB 1-800-4353440.
Roanoke. Historic Downtown Walking Tour includes 40 sites outlined in a stunning four-color, 16-page booklet. Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau 1-800-635-5535.
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