Blackberry Morning: A Beautiful & Peaceful Mountain Retreat near Blacksburg/VT

Blacksburg & Virginia Tech just 14 miles. In the New River Valley of the Blue Ridge Highlands on 268 private acres. Spectacular views of beautiful surrounding mountains & rolling valley below. Experience stilled time in the wonderfully peaceful solitude of nature. And the warm, inviting welcome of the comfortable, fully-furnished & well-equipped, cedar, fieldstone & glass house. Such a great place to gather family & friends for VATech sports events, graduations, class reunions, moving in your freshman & visiting your upperclassman; perfect for your family reunions, bride or groom's retreat, honeymoons. Or just come and enjoy a relaxing & refreshing vacation with family and friends! With awesome outdoor adventures nearby. You are going to love being here! It is so incredibly beautiful & wonderfully peaceful! Listen to the creek flowing & the birds singing and the breeze blowing. The sunsets down the valley & the brilliant stars in the night-sky are awe-inspiring. You can hike anywhere on the land & there are spectacular views from every vantage point. Picnic on the meadows & explore the creeks & park-like woods. While at Blackberry Morning, experience fun outdoor adventures! -- You can often see whitetail deer in the open pastures around the house early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The wild turkeys are elusive, but you can sometimes see them in the pastures or crossing the road. You can hike the Appalachian Trail at the top of our property. It's a 2.5 mile moderate-hike to Kelly Knob overlook. Other nearby hikes are Angel's Rest, Wind Rock and Dragon's Tooth. The Cascades Nat'l Recreation Site waterfall is just 10 miles West -- a great place to picnic and fly-fish for native trout. There are other wild & stocked trout streams nearby, including Big Stony Creek. The New River has canoeing, kayaking & tubing less than 15 miles West. And there's white-water rafting in West Virginia on the New & the Gauley, about two hours away, and you can bungee-jump off the New River Gorge Bridge in WVA, too. There is also skiing at Winter Place and Snowshoe in W.V., one-two hours West. You can go sailing, motor-boating, water-skiing, swimming & picnicking at Claytor Lake, just an hour away. Plan a special gourmet dinner at the Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston while you're here. Great fun! Yet, we're just 14.5 miles, 25 minutes across two mountains, to Blacksburg & VATech University, where there are all kinds of things to do that you typically find in a university town. Enjoy VATech sports, graduation & special events. Picnic by the Duck Pond, walk on the paved trails around campus, go to concerts on campus and at the smaller venue of the Lyric Theater downtown (old, restored movie-house). And there is a brand-new Performing Arts Center. There are side-walk cafes like Gillie's & Caba Fish Taco where you can hear local music, & great local restaurants like Bull & Bones and Zeppoli's, as well as favorite chains. There are movie theaters and downtown small-shops & mall shopping. There's a year-round indoor pool at the Blacksburg Recreation Center on our side of Blacksburg, where they also have basketball courts, tennis courts, a skateboard ramp, & a hand-in-hand playground on a large open field with picnic shelters. They have great 4th of July fireworks there, too! PLEASE NOTE that we have a resident in the basement studio apartment. We like to have someone trust-worthy living there to watch over the property when we aren’t there ourselves. This is our family home and farm and it is very special to us! Our current resident is Matthew Blair, a PhD candidate in engineering at VATech. The apartment does have a separate outside entrance and Matt will be very respectful of your presence in the house and your right to privacy and a quiet and non-intrusive Retreat stay. But he will be happy to chat with you about the area or answer questions you might have or help you out in any way that he can while you're there. I have found Matt to be an exceptional young man - very mature, responsible, considerate and friendly. Matt just finished his Master's degree at VATech in May and is staying on to complete his doctorate in engineering. He's an excellent student with ambitious goals (and a lovely, sweet girlfriend - who doesn't live with him). Please see his photo among the Retreat photos.