Again, Mill Mountain rises to about 1,750 feet, and I think my friends and I were at the overlook at or near its summit. These videos don’t do justice to the view, although the second one at least gives you the best sense of looking down at the world. The slope is so steep that peering down nearly induces vertigo.
I don’t know how true this is, but I read somewhere that Roanoke is the only American city with a mountain that is actually inside the city limits.
My Side of the Mountain. Looking for Frightful and The Baron.
That view is extraordinary, isn’t it? Mill Mountain rises to around 1,750 feet, and these were taken when my alumbuds and I were at or near the summit.
More mountain madness with the Mary Washington College kids.
I DO realize that those blurry car shots are weird. I just find them trippy and dreamlike! I’ll probably never stop posting them. (And that third really blurry shot makes me think of Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game.” The bright, laterally-racing greens just give it a sense of urgency.)
The Roanoke Star has crested Mill Mountain more than 1,000 feet above the city since 1949. It is visible for 60 miles, and results in Roanoke’s nickname as the “Star City.”
The views of the Roanoke Valley from the mountain’s crown are breathtaking.
Rainy Roanoke! It actually is a beautiful small city, even during an overcast October week — and the skies cleared up brightly my last day there.
What I loved most about the city during the daytime is how the surrounding mountain peaks ascended to be obscured by darkening alabaster clouds. It’s as though some celestial painter was coloring outside the lines, and brushed broad swathes of smoky white to cover the summits, and to turn the slopes the hues of deep, royal blue-gray and dimming charcoal.
This entire region in Southern Virginia rests along a broad valley encircled by mountains — the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west. (The Alleghenies are where you can find Iron Gate and Clifton Forge.) It is slightly disorienting for a first-time visitor to see mountains virtually everywhere on the horizon; I think it subtly affects one’s sense of direction. (Mill Mountain, home of the famed Roanoke Star, is within the city limits.)
There actually is a Long Island, Virginia along the Roanoke River, presumably where all the cool people live. Just northwest of that is Altavista, Virginia, with its notable cottage industry of obsolete Internet search engines.
My girlfriend calls Roanoke “The Snow Globe City,” and that makes sense when you view downtown from the highway. It is a quaint looking southern city, its streets are neatly lined with boxlike period buildings, and it has the appearance of a picturesque architectural huddle.
And there are churches everywhere within the city. It is indeed part of the Bible Belt.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 