Nature's Little Elf Workshop is Almost Here!
It’s crafts and cocoa galore at our Nature’s Little Elf Workshop!
It’s crafts and cocoa galore at our Nature’s Little Elf Workshop! After picking an elf name, children will have the opportunity to get hands-on with a variety of seasonal crafts. All programs will be led by BRDC staff, board members, and hand-picked volunteers. Elf costumes welcome! Activities will take place both indoors and out, so please dress warmly. Hot cocoa, cookies, a toasty fire, and marshmallows will be provided.
This is for children ages 3-15 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2022. This event will be inside and outside of our Schoolhouse. The address is 6402 Whitetop Road Troutdale, VA 24378.
If you’re interested in attending this annual Holiday event, please register with the link below!
February Events
As the temperatures cool down, Blue Ridge Discovery Center isn’t slowing down! With darkness settling in sooner in the evenings, we are entering the prime season for stargazing. And with trees and shrubs losing their foliage, the winter months allow for fewer visual obstructions during birdwatching, including sighting rare wintering birds from the far north. There’s something for everyone over the coming months. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
If you’re willing to brave the cold and exercise a little patience, winter bird-watching can be a rewarding experience. Birds don’t hibernate and with a pretty high metabolism, they remain active even in the coldest time of the year.
Some birds stay around all year, some travel great distances south (insect eaters for example), and some travel just a little ways south to escape the bitter cold and lack of food. Raptors and waterfowl are species that find their way to Burkes Garden.
Join us February 5th as we migrate over to Virginia’s highest valley in seek of over wintering raptors such as Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers, Owls, and more!
If you can’t make it on the 5th, stop by the Center on February 19th for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We have the feeders full and ready to participate in this citizen science activity. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
Burke’s Garden Birding Trip
February 5th, 9:00-4:00
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 19th, 10:00-2:00
Upcoming Events
As the temperatures cool down, Blue Ridge Discovery Center isn’t slowing down! With darkness settling in sooner in the evenings, we are entering the prime season for stargazing. And with trees and shrubs losing their foliage, the winter months allow for fewer visual obstructions during birdwatching, including sighting rare wintering birds from the far north. There’s something for everyone over the coming months. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
Fall is quickly approaching bringing cooler weather, beautiful foliage, and outdoor activities! With darkness getting earlier, we are entering the prime season for stargazing. As trees and shrubs lose their foliage, fewer visual obstructions affect birdwatching, and the trails await new discoveries! There’s something for everyone over the coming months. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
Get Outside Hikes
Saturdays, now through October 30th
All ages!
Planting Day
Friday, October 1st, 9-4
Volunteer Weekend
Saturday, October 23rd - 24th , 10-4
New River Christmas Bird Count (hosted by BRDC)
Saturday, December 18th, 9:00-5:00
Burke’s Garden Birding Trip
February 5th, 8:00-5:00
All ages!
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 12th, 10:00-2:00
All ages!
Upcoming Events
As the temperatures cool down, Blue Ridge Discovery Center isn’t slowing down! With darkness settling in sooner in the evenings, we are entering the prime season for stargazing. And with trees and shrubs losing their foliage, the winter months allow for fewer visual obstructions during birdwatching, including sighting rare wintering birds from the far north. There’s something for everyone over the coming months. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
As the temperatures cool down, Blue Ridge Discovery Center isn’t slowing down! With darkness settling in sooner in the evenings, we are entering the prime season for stargazing. And with trees and shrubs losing their foliage, the winter months allow for fewer visual obstructions during birdwatching, including sighting rare wintering birds from the far north. There’s something for everyone over the coming months. Join us! Click event titles for more information.
Exploring Astronomy
Friday, November 20th, 5:30-7:30
All ages!
Seedling Scientist
Saturday, November 21st, 2:00-3:30
Ages 3-5
New River Christmas Bird Count (hosted by BRDC)
Saturday, December 19th, 9:00-5:00
Mt. Rogers Christmas Bird Count (hosted by Allen Boynton)
Sunday, December 20th, 9:00-5:00
Burke’s Garden Birding Trip
February 6th, 8:00-5:00
All ages!
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 13th, 10:00-2:00
All ages!
Kicking Off a Summer of Discovery
From festival to forest to field, there is much to discover across the Blue Ridge during the summer. Check out what we have been up to with our friends!
From festival to forest to field, there is much to discover across the Blue Ridge during the summer. Check out what we have been up to with our friends!
A Weekend of Music and Fun
On June 15th, we had the opportunity to not only participate in the Wayne Henderson Music Festival, but also to provide the 2019 children’s activities. Despite the past record of rainy days, the sun paid a visit for the day to make the weather even more beautiful for the full day ahead. Throughout the day while getting to listen to the amazing performances, we got to make journals, leaf poundings, buttons, and other crafts. In addition to creating things together, we also got to listen to storytelling and participate in rope trick lessons, courtesy of some of our incredible volunteers.
Konnarock Discovery Day Camp: Session I
On June 17th, we kicked off the first session of our Discovery Day Camp based out of Konnarock! Despite the prevailing storms that came throughout the week, we got to participate in activities that focused on every aspect of the nature around us. From collecting and learning about different trees of the area, to having first-hand experiences with native and non-native animals, everyday was a little adventure.
Galax Discovery Day Camp: Session I
This past week, Blue Ridge Discovery Center had the pleasure of providing Discovery Day Camp for kids in the Galax area! Every day was focused on a different aspect of nature. We explored all things from birding to stream ecology and hydrography! The students learned so much, including what constitutes an owl pellet (pictured). All in all, the week was a success and our campers walked away with a greater appreciation for the physical world around them.
Discovery Day Camp Photo Album
The Blue Ridge: A Geological Autobiography
If the Blue Ridge could write its own long and complex history, surely it would chisel the words in stone. Fortunately, it did just that. And fortunately, we have a translator in our midst. During our January 2019 Geology Expedition, USGS Geologist Arthur Merschat unraveled the story of the geologic events that left Virginia’s oldest basement rocks exposed for us to access and admire.
If the Blue Ridge could write its own long and complex history, surely it would chisel the words in stone. Fortunately, it did just that. And fortunately, we have a translator in our midst. During our January 2019 Geology Expedition, USGS Geologist Dr. Arthur Merschat unraveled the story of the geologic events that left Virginia’s oldest basement rocks exposed for us to access and admire.
The Blue Ridge Mountains as we see them today are a result of several major geologic events. Initially, tectonic plates drifting together over time caused continental collisions during the Grenville orogeny and produced the supercontinent Rodinia around 1 billion years ago. Around 750 million years ago, Rodinia began to break up and caused a series of lava flows and volcanic eruptions. The final breakup resulted in the pulling apart of the continent and the formation of oceans, and for a time, Virginia existed as a tropical marine environment located south of the equator. Evidence of this can be seen in the fluvial to marine sedimentary rocks of the Chilhowie Group along Whitetop Rd. However, during the Alleghenian orogeny 300 million years ago, Africa collided with us to form the supercontinent Pangea. This event thrust billion-year-old basement rocks and 750 million-year-old volcanic rocks of Mount Rogers above the layered rocks of the Valley & Ridge. It is these ancient, metamorphosed rocks that we encountered on our trip.
Matrix-supported diamictite with hammer for scale.
The trip began with a visit to a road cut of 750 Ma diamictite (pictured) within the Konnarock Formation. This sedimentary rock consists of clasts (pieces of rock or minerals that range from pebbles to cobbles and boulders) supported by a matrix of sand and clay and tells us that this area was once a glacial environment.
Our next stop within the Konnarock Formation provided an opportunity to spot dropstones. During glacial melt, granite stones that had been carried in the ice dropped into the soft sediment (rhythmite and laminite) of the lake beds.
Next, we ventured north on Whitetop Rd. to view elements of the Unicoi Formation within the Chilhowie Group, where a 540 Ma basalt flow is easily visible within a road cut on Iron Mountain. From north to south it is possible to see the basalt flow with conglomerate, arkose, and shale below, and quartzite above. During metamorphism, vesicles - former gas bubbles within the volcanic rock (basalt) - were filled with other minerals such as potassium feldspar and calcite. These filled vesicles are referred to as amygdules (pictured).
In this chunk of basalt with potassium feldspar amgydules, Dr. Arthur Merschat tests for calcite using hydrochloric acid.
Black slate in the Hampton Formation.
Our next stop was the Hampton Formation at Skulls Gap on Whitetop Rd. Here, an underwater landslide occurred while the black shale (formed in an anoxic environment) and sandstones were deposited, which were later metamorphosed into slate and quartzite (pictured).
Heading across Whitetop Mountain and along the Stone Mountain Fault, several stops allowed us to view rocks within the Mount Rogers volcanic center, including flow-banded lava, arkose, and volcanic breccia, as well as greenstone featuring phenocrysts of plagioclase (large, conspicuous crystals of plagioclase feldspar), and more amygdules, this time filled by epidote and quartz. Next, we encountered the Buzzard Rock member, the lowest and oldest rhyolite in the Mount Rogers volcanic center at over 755 million years old.
Geologist Dr. Arthur Merschat describes the greenstone at Elk Garden.
Phenocrysts of plagioclase embedded in greenstone.
Potassium feldspar and plagioclase phenocrysts in the Buzzard Rock rhyolite.
Once we crossed over the Catface Fault into the Pond Mountain volcanic center, we encountered mylonite, a fine-grained fault rock containing muscovite which had been lineated due to shearing and flattening.
Mylonite with lineated muscovite along the Catface Fault.
Farther up the road, we glimpsed a peek at the 1.1 billion-year-old basement rocks within the Stone Mountain thrust sheet. These coarse, whitish-gray and pink granite rocks contain minerals that were crystalized deep in the earth’s crust before the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our final stop at a road cut afforded us a wide view of the large clasts of rhyolite, granite, and arkose that comprise this boulder conglomerate. Beautiful!
Participants admiring a road cut of boulder conglomerate.
The Geology Expedition was a full-day adventure of traveling through and unraveling millions of years of the Blue Ridge’s history. And although we only encountered a fraction of what there is to see, we ultimately acquired a deeper understanding of the geologic events that created this montane region*, the very foundation of our Center.
*If you are interested in learning more about the natural history of this unique region, join us for the Spring Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally May 10-12, 2019.
Members FREE, Non-members $10
Trip Photo Gallery
