ROANOKE, Va. – Happy Hollow Gardens is a short hike on Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s located just off Mount Chesnut road and you’re welcomed with beautiful flowers.
There is a huge parking lot to leave your car at the trailhead. My allergies had been acting up all week, so I wanted something short that still got me out in the woods.
The first few minutes you’ll walk along a wooden path. In the peak of spring, these flowers are in full bloom, and we had just missed it. After walking through the garden, we took a right and started on the path.
You’ll head down some steps then up a hill. There’s a nice overlook on the left where you can see the tip of the mountains through the trees. There’s also some huge boulders to explore on the trail.
Further down the trail, we saw a sign for an amphitheater, so we went to check it out. It was only a few paces off the main trail, and I needed to check out the acoustics.
They were not bad! We hopped back onto the main trail and saw another sign for a picnic shelter, so that was our next turn.
Just a heads up, there are not markers on this trail aside from signs. We crossed over a little stream and by this point we had been hiking for about 20 minutes. We came to a “T”, and stay to the left.
The picnic shelter sits alongside the water and we saw the wooden bridge that we started from, and knew we had completed the loop.
While it wasn’t a strenuous or long hike, it was the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air, and the drive back into Roanoke was beautiful.