By this point, the Dogwood will be in full flower and the Sarvis will have faded. So many places around this area offer precious glimpses of these early changes. A ride down Route 42, toward Millboro, holds long stretches where each day wakes more of nature's bright response to warming temperatures. A trek up Hot Springs Mountain or a ride around Falling Springs shows the steady change there as well. Coming along Interstate 64-West toward Clifton Forge and Covington, from the mountaintop on, the hillsides are covered in promise.
Spring is in the Highlands.
But one spot in this region of mountain beauty lies almost without any evidence of this season's gifts. A drive along this section of the road would open up a view of National Forest mountain side covered in Sarvis and Redbud, and later in the season, Dogwood. Not such a great story beginning. Today, an unsightly, ribbed sewage pipe that looks more like a huge snake sliding in and out of the brown earth carries the black, smelly trash bile into a holding tank. All around the ground is a sparse mix of grassy weeds, dead brittle stems, and a few spindly pines.