Beaver Dam Trail and New River Trail at Pulaski

Hubby Chris, pup Sidney and I usually take our daily walk along the Beaver Dam Trail off of Beaver Dam Road, Hillsville, Va. A joint project of the town and Carroll County, the trail is a little over 2 miles long.

The town's portion runs from Beaver Dam Road along the banks of the Beaver Dam Creek, woods and a couple of horse pastures. We frequently see wildlife, such as turkey, deer, groundhog, butterflies and birds. Among our favorite birds that visit the trail are king fishers, blue heron and cedar waxwings. Here is a swallowtail we saw today:

There's also an abundant of flowers to enjoy, such as this cardinal flower I took earlier today:

You can also find lamb's ear, may apples, jewel weed, joe pye weed and flame azalea among the many flora in the area.

But sometimes we all need a change of scenery, so we've been exploring areas we haven't been to before or haven't visited in awhile.

Among those have been the Pulaski end of the New River Trail State Park in Pulaski, Va., and Historic Bethabara Park in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The New River Trail is 39 miles and runs from Fries, Va., to Pulaski. There's also a trail extension that runs to Galax, Va. visitors can bike, hike or ride horses on this trail that runs along the New River. It's built on a former railroad track bed.

Historic Bethabara Park is a National Historic Landmark and is the 1753 site of Moravians, a German-speaking, Protestant settlement. The park offers 183-acres of wildlife preserve with 26 species of birds. Besides the 20 miles of trails, museum, reconstructed village, archaelogical ruins visitors can explore, the park offers a varieties of activities like yesterday's Apple Festival.