Douthat State Park is one of Virginia's jewels. Voted among the nation’s 10 best state parks, it has more than 43 miles of trails. Beards Mountain has just as many beautiful vistas as the Blue Suck Falls Hike, which is the other circuit hike in the park. Both hikes feature lots of Mountain laurel, which blooms in early June.

We were last at Douthat at this same time last year. It was even more beautiful than we remembered. The trails are in fantastic condition with good blazing and signage throughout.

We'll have to make it back again next spring to hike Beards Mountain and make it to the two overlooks that we missed this time out. But we don’t really need a reason :). We could visit this park again and again, just for the beauty of the valley.