Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 8, 1994 TAG: 9405110001
SECTION: DISCOVER NRV PAGE: 4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A few favorites did emerge, however.
The Cascades, outside of Pembroke made many of the lists, including best picnic spot, best hike, best place to take a visitor and favorite public park.
The shady forest and cool, clear water make it the obvious choice on a hot summer day, but the place has charms the other three seasons, colorful foilage in fall, delicate spring woodland flowers and icy wonders with no crowds in the winter.
Claytor Lake State Park is another popular choice as a favorite place to entertain children, favorite picnic site and favorite park. There's swimming and boating, hiking trails, grills, tables and shelters.
Offering some of the same services (picnic tables, fishing, hiking,swimming) and some different ones (great mountain bike trails!) in a more rustic setting is Pandapas Pond, another local favorite.
Several readers nominated the virgin forests near Mountain Lake, citing the serenity that only a wild place can instill.
Many other readers like their green places more manicured. The Duck Pond and other parts of the Virginia Tech campus have lots of admirers. The Horticulture Gardens on campus attract both the master gardener and the gardening-impaired to marvel at the lush bed of flowers.
The Price House on Wharton Street in Blacksburg is another lovely green spot. The high season is May and June when the iris are blooming.
City and town parks rated high in the Discover poll. Bisset Park in Radford has all the things you'd expect from a green spot in the middle of humanity - playground equipment, ball fields and tennis courts (some lighted), room to fly a kite, a great walking trail along the river and a swimming pool.
It also offers some unexpected benefits, like the red raspberries growing wild in the summer and exercise for your pet by chasing the muskrats that live there.
In Blacksburg, the Hand-In-Hand Playground/Caboose Park/Municipal complex is very popular as favorite park, as best way to entertain kids and as favorite picnic site. A recent Saturday afternoon there showed it to be a very busy place.
Karen Fleet, mother of Benjamin, 6, and Sarah, 11, marveled at the flexibility of a place that could entertain both of those ages equally. Her husband was practicing with his ball team there as well.
Also memtioned favorably were the Star-Lite Drive In, where the movies are mostly family fare.
Other votes went to the Straight Street teen club, the Virginia Tech Rector Fieldhouse during free play and the Scooterd Skate Center in Pulaski.
by CNB