Winter on the Virginia Creeper Trail

WHITETOP MOUNTAIN, Virginia – If the weather is the least bit accommodating, bicyclists enjoy the Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail in Southwest Virginia year-round. The 34.3-mile-long route, one of America’s most famous rails-to-trails projects, follows the route of a mountain railroad line that ceased operation in 1977. The trail got its name from the slow-moving trains that crept through the Virginia mountains and into North Carolina. It runs from atop Whitetop Mountain( Virginia’s second highest peak), through Damascus and into Abingdon. (Photo by Tom Adkinson)