Was Roanoke on my travel bucket list? No. In my head it was just some historic town involving American history in some way. For the record, it turns out to not be related to the Roanoke colony in any way. Regardless, we always enjoy checking out new places and exploring new areas.

Roanoke is only a 3-hour drive from Charlotte, so it is an easy driving destination. We lucked out and found the perfect AirBNB for us. It was just a 10-minute walk to the downtown and had at least six breweries within 0.6 miles and I wasn’t even the one who booked it. Our overall impression of Roanoke was positive. It seemed clean, a good size overall, friendly, and close to good hikes.

Hiking

I guess the reason for our visit was Megan initially came across the natural land bridge in the area and went from there. Natural Bridge State Park is about 40ish minutes outside of Roanoke. There is a $9 fee per person to access the trail under the land bridge. Lace Falls via Cedar Creek on AllTrails. It is an easy jaunt once you get down the 130+ stairs and past the ticket office/gift shop/restroom. The remaining hike after the land bridge was easy and interesting enough. The land bridge itself was pretty cool to see. It was definitely worth seeing and gave me just the slightest taste of wonder that occurred when viewing the Grand Canyon. There were plenty of benches, so we sat and enjoyed our apples and the view.

We opted to do the longer Blue Ridge Trail hike after the land bridge trail since it was close, added 4 hiking miles, and was technically included in the park fee. It was fine and neat to walk through the wildflowers and we had a nice picnic out on the trail which we enjoyed. The next day we hiked up to McAfee Knob via Appalachian Trail to see the most photographed spot on the App Trail. It was a pretty great hike with one of the best payoff views you can find on the east coast. We saw several deer, lots of squirrels and birds, but thankfully no bears that had been recently reported.

The one other area we explored was the Mill Mountain Park, home of the Mill Mountain Star. The Roanoke Star that lights up every night over the city of Roanoke. It is a nice park that you can drive to with a few scenic platforms and plenty of space for picnics. While you can’t view the sun actually setting behind the mountains due to tree coverage in that direction, we enjoyed the views of the city with a changing sunset sky.

Food and Drink

The food options were a little sparse for our kind (vegans), but thankfully the Roanoke Co-Op had a solid selection of grocery and ready to eat items. We loaded up on the different flavors of tofu and vegan breakfast wraps. I’m not sure if it is just due to being vegan and always curious to see what is being offered or what different products we can find, but we tend to do a slow walk through a grocery store or two on every vacation.

We did come across some of the best saison beers we’ve every tried. It is a style that nearly always disappoints me so I was a little concerned when we walked in seeing that was their style. Fortunately, I ordered one and then another. Blindhouse Beer is definitely worth checking out.

For the record, I was ordering half or smaller pours which makes it easier to try more beers and not feel too full. It’s a practice I should continue despite paying more for less beer. At my age, it is more fun to sample more, then to consume more…usually.

I don’t know that we need to go back to Roanoke to visit again, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it.