Sunday, October 7
We set up at the Luray RV Resort Camping Waye in Luray, Virginia. What a pleasant surprise! Wide open space for the RVs and so QUIET! It's about 9 miles from the midpoint park entrance, which adds to the allure.
We were placed next to the park's yurt, which serves as a movie theater on Saturday nights and a church on Sunday mornings. What a fun idea! The owners of the park are Swiss, so yurts are a part of their culture we figure. Lots of room for tents, kids and dogs, and plenty of room in between the RVs. Awesome! There's a big gazebo for large groups, too. Tuesday, October 9
Our introduction to Shenandoah National Park began this morning. What a beautiful park! We took the Skyline Drive, which is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway that follows the mountain crests from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. We traveled from the Thornton Gap entrance, which is kind of mid-point in the park, south to the Swift Run Gap entrance station. There is some color emerging in the leaves, but the best is yet to come we've been told. Still, the drive was really fun. There are so many pullouts and things to see. Some of the more spectacular reds were on vines climbing up trees or climbing on rock formations, but there wasn't any place to pullout for a picture.
"People came to the blue Ridge mountains of Virginia for rest and recreation long before Shenandoah National Park was established. Skyland Resort hosted weary urbanites for long stays starting in the late 1800s. Later, President Herbert Hoover and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover built their Rapidan Camp as a retreat to escape the stress of work and summer's heat and humidity in the nation's capital. The Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) "boys" came in the 1930s to build many rustic-style park facilities - some still seen and used today - so that everyone could retreat the mountains for recreation and relaxation."
Much of the park is green. Patches of color popped up every now and again. Can you imagine these hills full of color? Hope we get to see it! There was a heavy haze in the air as we drove through, and that prevented many of the pictures from being clear enough or from the colors being as brilliant as they could have been. It was 70-something in the park and 92 when we reached the trailer down below. We'll take it! We're planning a return trip for Friday. There should be a little more color by then and maybe less haze. A cold front is moving through in the next couple of days. We don't care! We'll be here 'til we're not here anymore!
This was sunset one evening at the trailer. Quite a shot! Friday, October 12 and Saturday, October 13
We ate this elephant one bite at a time, coming in from Front Royal or north entrance this time. The park is 105 miles long, but it's divided into three parts. On Tuesday, we made the loop from the Thornton Gap entrance south to the Swift Run Gap entrance - middle of the park. Friday we entered from Front Royal on a cold and blustery day and exited the park at the Thornton Gap entrance. Saturday, we entered from the Thornton Gap entrance again and drove all the way to the south entrance at Rockfish. Our consensus is that the prettiest part of the park is the route we drove on Saturday.
Trying to capture bright red vines on a cloudy day doesn't work too well, but they were growing everywhere on the rocks. There was an array of color right next to the vines. Rust-colored ferns against the gray of the rocks and green of the trees were pretty. This trail caught Bruce's eye and challenged his photographic abilities. All the fallen leaves against the green backdrop. Turned out pretty good, doncha think? A ranger at the Front Royal VC said that because of the drought conditions, many of the trees went from green to brown with no stopping in the middle. The recent windy conditions have caused the leaves to drop, too. This picture and the one below were taken at the Crescent Rock overlook. Gorgeous! As it turned out, a college professor was giving a class lessons on hyper-focal so guess who got into the conversation? Bruce didn't realize it was actually a class. He thought it was simply someone sharing info, but the prof was very gracious and informed Bruce that the chart he has on hyper-focal is only slightly out of whack. We'll be coming back to this point on our next trip. When we were in the park on Tuesday, we passed the hike to Dark Hollow falls and vowed to take it next time we came in. The hike into Dark Hollow falls says it's about a mile-and-a-half round trip. We can do that, we thought! Let's go! After all, it's asphalt - for about the first 50 feet we would find out. :-) Oh well, here we go.
The breezes made it a little difficult to capture the rustling leaves of the trees, but this red against the blue sky with the yellow next to it was outstanding. What we didn't realize until too far in was that it's quite a descent! Oh boy, coming back out is going to be fun. The scenery was fantastic, though, so onward we went. Deeper and deeper into the canyon. These are Dark Hallow falls. It's barely a trickle right now because of drought conditions in the area, but it's still pretty. On one of our many rest stops coming back out of the canyon, Bruce took a self-portrait while trying to capture a picture of this butterfly. The butterfly was very patient and posed for the Oldtymr to capture this image. We teasingly said it took us half-an-hour to get to the falls and an hour to get out. Whew! We sure learned how out of shape we are for that kind of a hike! We must have taken six stops along the way. Keep in mind that we're flatlanders and the starting elevation for the hike was 3,490 feet. No wonder! After a well-earned and much appreciated lunch and refreshments at the Big Meadows Lodge, we continued our journey south.
We have several places such as this marked to visit in the afternoon of our next return. Colors should be peaking soon, and we're looking forward to the views. According to the leaf peeper sites, colors peak sometime between October 18 and 25. Lots of time to enjoy this part of the country. So far, we love this part of Virginia. It's so lush and green, not to mention the colors, and their roads are in good shape. The old-style, colonial homes are captivating. Sure would love to walk through some of them. Wonder what the owners would say if we walked up, knocked on the door and asked to see the inside of their home. We have a pretty good idea. :-)
Tuesday, October 16
With leaves of gold, brown, green, orange and red floating gently down to earth in front of us, we entered Shenandoah for the fourth time. We were eager to see what changes have taken place since our last visit. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining, a few clouds floating overhead and very few people compared to last Saturday.
We entered through the Thornton Gap entrance again and made a beeline for Crescent Rock. The colors have intensified a bit, we thought, and presented a wonderful display for our eyes to behold. Much the same picture as we took on Saturday, but the hill in the background is beginning to color up more. Check out the reds above and the oranges and yellows that are only slightly to the left of the reds. Awesome arrays! Further up the road, was another pretty hillside and the Shenandoah valley blow. Big Meadow, which is across from the Byrd VC, was alive with color and had been all week. Today we took a walk out in the meadow to see what we could see. It's interesting how the colors change depending on which camera is being used to take the shot. Bruce took the two above using a warming filter. Geri took this one without any filter at all. This one gives you an idea of the tapestry of the meadow floor. Really pretty. There were a few of these daisies in the field, as well, and they sure contrasted to against red. One of Bruce's favorite shots. Notice the wings seem to be swirling around on this bumble bee. Pretty cool! These trees were a cross the street from the Dark Hollow Falls parking lot where we hiked on Saturday. They had changed color quite a bit since then. These trees are to the left of those above. Again, the above picture was taken using a warming filter and this one was not. Yellow, gold, green, fallen leaves and shadows caught Bruce's eye at the Lewis Mountain picnic area. One of Geri's favorite things about this park is the tunnel created by the towering trees. A whitetail doe and her fawn were happily grazing beside the road. We've probably seen six deer to this point. Shades of color and sun dancing through the leaves is captivating. Another one of the wonderful tunnels through the trees at Sunland. The alternating sun and shade is enough to put one to sleep while driving through. Very soothing. After another glorious day in the park, we pulled back into the RV park about 3:30. The next day, a woman would comment on how disappointed she is with the lack of color in the area. It was their first visit, and they were hoping for more. We think it's beautiful, we said. Compared to what we get at home, we're thankful for the colors and truly enjoying this state. We don't have the broadleaf trees in Washington state that are on the east coast. Very few conifers and mostly broadleaf trees. That's just the opposite from home.
We truly had a wonderful time in Virginia, and our next stop is near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to take in Great Smoky Mountain National Park and whatever other attractions unfold before us.
Fall colors in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
