Hiking to Buzzards Rock at the Read Mountain Preserve in Roanoke

During our most recent road trip in the United States, my partner and I stopped in Roanoke, Virginia. Since we were going to be spending the night there, we decided to also look at the hiking options in the area, and after doing some research, we decided to head to the Read Mountain Preserve to hike to Buzzards Rock.

In fact, there is no shortage of hiking options in Roanoke! This small town is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the famous Appalachian Trail passes nearby. But since we were a little exhausted from the previous days’ hikes, and since the weather seemed a little uncertain (it snowed, then rained on our way to Roanoke), we didn’t want to do a hike that was too long or too difficult.

It was while doing some research on AllTrails that we came across the hike to Buzzards Rock, a hike of almost 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) that would take us to a nice lookout. So we drove to the Read Mountain Preserve parking lot, located in a quiet residential area in the northern outskirts of Roanoke.

The Read Mountain Preserve is a 243-acre park that protects an undeveloped ridge (Read Mountain, which has an elevation of 717 metres / 2,353 feet). It is a small natural oasis in a developed area of ​​the city. There are a few miles of trails there, and the one leading to Buzzards Rock climbs around the eastern side of the mountain.

From the first few meters, I knew I would love this hike. The trail is narrow and on the forest floor, and we had to step over many roots and navigate around large rocks. The climb is quite steady from the start, as we followed a dry ravine towards the mountain.

Then the trail climbed in a series of switchbacks on the eastern side of the mountain. The climb is constant, but it didn’t seem too difficult to me (but my partner would say otherwise). I have to say that I was pretty excited to be on that kind of trail. I love it when the terrain is a little more rugged, when you have to climb over big rocks and when these rocks seem almost laid out like a long staircase in the mountain.

At one point, we reached a large rock on which the “View” sign seemed to indicate the presence of a lookout. Although it was possible to see the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance, I imagine the view must be quite obstructed in the summer when the trees have all their leaves.

Same observation a few metres further, when we came across a similar sign while we were hiking along a rocky cliff. In this case, there were definitely no views (maybe there used to be one years ago?), but I didn’t complain too much. I really had so much fun on this trail!

The trail eventually reached the ridge of the mountain, where it intersects with the flatter and wider CCC Trail. The trail gets its name from the fact that it was possibly developed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (this was the second time in as many days that we encountered a trail of that name, after our visit to Kings Mountain State Park the day before). The CCC trail follows the ridge of the mountain towards its highest point, then took us along rocky cliffs on the western side of the mountain.

It is there, in a beautiful spot where there was also a bench to take a break, that we finally reached Buzzards Rock.

Buzzards Rock offers a superb view of the Roanoke Valley and the mountains that border it to the west (among others, it is possible to see Fort Lewis Mountain as well as the famous McAfee Knob). We didn’t see any buzzards, but I imagine that it must be possible to see them on occasion and that they are the ones that give their name to this rock).

After a short break at this beautiful lookout, we began to retrace our steps. It is possible to do a longer hike by following the CCC Trail which allows you to make a long loop on the mountain. But we had done what we came to do, reaching Buzzards Rock, so we wisely decided to return to our van to rest before heading to downtown Roanoke for dinner.

The descent was obviously easier than the climb, so I took the time to savour every moment on this pretty trail. In total, the hike totaled 6 kilometres (3.7 miles), with an elevation gain of 340 metres (1,115 feet). This was another great hike in Virginia, I can’t wait to come back and explore more trails in this state!