Blue Ridge Rail Trail

Description

Elevation: 638 ft.

Piney River is one of the most recent towns in Virginia to convert their disused rail bed into a nature trail. The trail is still being developed, starting at the refurbished train depot in Piney River and heading east through a varied landscape of evergreen and deciduous forest mixed with brush land and open areas. The woods along the trail are alive with birds throughout the year. Residents such as blue jay, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, and red-bellied and downy woodpeckers are joined in winter by numerous yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Check the trailside brush piles for song, white-throated and the occasional white-crowned sparrow. During migration the area should be checked for neotropical migrants such as warblers, vireos, tanagers and orioles, while summer should be good for a variety of dragonflies and butterflies.

Directions

From Mill Creek Park, return to the intersection of Rt. 610 and Rt. 778; turn right onto Rt. 778 and continue north for 2.0 miles to Rt. 665. Turn right on Rt. 665 and follow this road 3.5 miles to SR 151. Turn left on SR 151 and go 0.7 miles into the Town of Piney River. The Blue Ridge Rail Trail starts next to the train depot on the right.