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| Roanoke's Star at the top of Mill Mountain |
Location: In Roanoke. From Jefferson Street, go east (away from downtown) on Walnut Street, cross a bridge, then turn left on Piedmont and quickly back to the right on Riverland. Follow it one mile to the trailhead, up a short incline on gravel to the right. From I-581, take the Elm Street exit and go east (away from downtown) on Elm. Follow Elm to Ninth Street, turn right at the stoplight, and follow Ninth until it ends on Riverland. Turn left on Riverland and the trailhead is a short distance on the right. There is also a trail entry point on J.B. Fishburn Parkway, which begins as Walnut Street in downtown Roanoke and connects with the Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke Mountain.
Length: 1.7 miles from trailhead to summit (3.4 miles round trip).
Elevation: From just over 900 feet at the trailhead to 1,847 feet at the mountaintop.
Gottabreathe factor (Difficulty, scale 0 to 4) of 2.5: Trail ascends over 800 feet, but it climbs gradually in wide switchbacks. For someone in average physical condition, this trail is just tough enough to provide a good workout when you don't have time to go something longer or farther away and just easy enough not to take a long time or drain your energy.
Gottasee factor (Scenery, scale 0 to 4) of 2: Some nice views, rock outcroppings and forest walking in a snippet of "wilderness" amid a metropolitan area. Deer are commonly seen on the trail. Trail scenery is marred some by a city water tank and tree cut areas.
More on the Star
How to get there from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Click here
Bike ride between Mill Mountain and Roanoke Mountain. Click here
All you'd ever want to know about the Star. Click here
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March 2000
Look to the Star up Mill Mountain
By KEVIN MYATT
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST
Roanoke is commonly called the "Star City." The reason for this is the 88-foot-tall star atop Mill Mountain, a low mountain or tall hill (Mill Hill, anyone?) that rises above the city's center. The Star is to Roanoke what the Gateway Arch is to St. Louis, the Golden Gate Bridge is to San Francisco and the Hollywood sign is to, well, Hollywood.
To me, Roanoke could just as easily be dubbed the "City of Vistas." No city I can think of has as many overlook points surrounding it from as many different directions as Roanoke. Many are accessible by car; others require sweat. Just when I think I've seen all the angles, I discover another one.
Probably the most widely known, visited and photographed such vista is the one from the Star on Mill Mountain. This is Roanoke's postcard perspective. Roanoke's skyline opens up under your feet 1,000 feet below and the urban sprawl of the Roanoke Valley spreads into the distance until it bumps against the Blue Ridge on the east and Allegheny Mountains on the west. You can drive to see this vista, which is fine if you're taking visiting family and friends for a sightseeing side stop on the way to dinner. But if you really want to earn the view, which can be up to 60 miles on a clear day, the Star Trail is the way to go.
The Star is 50 years old, but the Star Trail is just an infant, finished only in December 1998. In the long term, the Star Trail is proposed to be a part of a massive greenway system that will follow the Roanoke River from Green Hill Park west of Salem to Explore Park. For now, it stands on its own as a moderate climb to a well-known overlook in a pleasant city park.
Keep in mind this is an urban trail. The views you will see include smokestacks at the World War II-era rayon plant down by the river, rows and rows of houses in residential neighborhoods, and bustling highways. Airplanes will roar overhead on final approach to Roanoke Regional Airport, easily visible from the summit. Trains will rumble and blare horns, and a whistle will signal lunch and quitting times at the Norfolk Southern plant. But the Star Trail also features classic Appalachian mountain scenes, a sampler of the many much longer and more remote trails found in almost any direction from Roanoke. Any Roanoker or Roanoke area visitor interested in kicking up dust should make this jaunt. Let me rephrase: Every able-bodied Roanoker should make this hike (or jog -- some run it daily) at least once, and every visitor should at least drive to the summit.
The first stretch of the trail illustrates its urban nature -- it's a gravel road that climbs to a water tank. This is an access road for city personnel to maintain the tank, but it is gated and you should not see any other kinds of vehicles (and rarely any city vehicles) as your feet crunch the gravel. The gravel road also happens to be the steepest section of the entire trail -- and the least scenic.
With the water tank to the left, the Star Trail bends right off the road, past a bench, through a thicket of small, thin trees and that most invasive of non-native plants, kudzu. It's mostly level through here, and this is a nice place to see many different kinds of birds. You can see an old rock foundation in the woods to the right and will start seeing Fishburn Parkway above you to the left. Eventually, the trail works upward some, climbing a flight of steps, to the road.
You could start your hike here -- there is space for about two cars to park on the side of Fishburn Parkway where the Star Trail crosses it. Starting here would eliminate the water tank-kudzu segment, a half-mile of walking and a couple of hundred feet of climbing. I've done it a few times. It's up to you. I won't tell anyone if you cheat a little.
For about a quarter-mile after crossing the road and rising onto a wooded hillside, the trail parallels Fishburn Parkway as it ever-so-slowly climbs. There are a few larger trees in the mixed hardwood-pine forest through here and some nice rock chunks, too. You'll pass one big rock partially on the trail, from which you can see many similar chunks of stone up the hill forming an intermittent rocky spine toward the summit. Just zone out the road and the urban views through the trees (including that water tank below, which will give you an idea of how far you've already climbed), and you could imagine yourself on the Appalachian Trail or beginning the climb to Sharp Top at the Peaks of Otter.
The trail reaches a rocky overlook point -- looking over Fishburn Parkway and toward Roanoke Mountain, quite pretty -- before taking a sharp right, finally bending away from the road. You will pass through some rather unsightly tree cut areas here -- an apparent burn zone -- as the pine ratio thickens in the forest. Also, an old but well-defined trail will cross the Star Trail a few times. Just go straight ahead and follow the signs and yellow blazes and you will stay on the Star Trail.
Working uphill, the trail passes another rocky area with some city views through the trees. Then, it switches back to the left and keeps working uphill, gradually. You will find several sizeable boulders through this section of the trail, and a little farther, the trail will make a quick "S" turn through some of these boulders as it switches back to the right.
Amid hardwood trees and rocks, the trail will make two more switchbacks on moderate uphill grades. If you peek up through the trees, especially during leaf-off, the star will become visible. Before you know it, just as you're beginning to work up a little sweat and breathing a little faster, you will suddenly arrive at the summit.
The trail will come out on an old road. Going right will lead you under the Star and its associated overlook; going left will take you to the parking lot. There is a second overlook I actually like a little better down the sidewalk a few hundred yards from the Star. The park is a nice place to picnic or spend a little time. I like to climb up the "grassy knoll" beside the radio towers and take in the views of the Blue Ridge on the other side of the mountain. There's also a children's zoo on top.
I would say Mill Mountain is a good place to "mill around," but I've already said Tinker Cliffs are a good place to "tinker around."
It took me 34 minutes to reach the summit from the trailhead, and this was while making lots of stops and walking a feisty dog that likes to get her leash tied up in off-trail brush. I've probably walked it 10 times since moving to Roanoke in November -- and I did it for the first time during the stay for my job interview in October. I'll walk it scores more times, too. The Star is a part of life in the Roanoke Valley. For a hiker or even a casual walker, so is the Star Trail. |
Copyright 2003