Shenandoah National Park

Sorry this blog is a little late. I've been so busy since coming home but this is what I wrote while along the drive, I just didn't have Internet to post it.

One of the things that annoys me about the Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive is some of their “overlooks”. They are basically pulloffs surrounded by trees. Don’t call it an overlook if it doesn’t overlook anything! I wanted to see the Roanoke River gorge but all I could catch was a glimpse of the river. Anyways, it is a gorgeous drive no matter if you're looking at massive vistas or the leaves of a tree. I did a really cool hike to an old cabin that is restored to how it would look in the 1930’s. It was kind of odd because most cabins are restored to represent 19th century America so to see a record player and various innovations was kind of cool. I stopped at Abbott Lake on the way back and it was very picturesque. My favorite spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway was the James River. There’s a small visitor center and you walk underneath the bridge to a restored lock. Growing up by the Erie Canal, I love a good lock. They're so darn simple but amazing how they revolutionized transportation. There’s also a walk through the trees above the river with really nice views. The river was so calm and everything reflected perfectly off of it. It was just a very peaceful place and I loved being there.


I decided to hike around Otter Lake which was a little bit further down the road and then stop at Otter Creek to camp. I went down to the creek and did a bit of crayfishing which was pretty fun. After a good night's rest, I finished off the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed up into Shenandoah National Park. They have the Skyline Drive which is 105 miles long. Over the next couple of days I hiked some of the Appalachian Trail and to a lot of waterfalls. All the overlooks were straight up and down and all the waterfalls were straight down then up. My legs were hurting pretty bad. I’ve always thought it would be cool to say I hiked the Appalachian Trail. Now I am convinced that is the absolute last thing I want to do. It’s pretty but even after two days I was going crazy because you are just surrounded by green. The trail isn’t even in great condition. It’s full of rocks. A really cool hike I did was to Rapidan Camp. It was Herbert Hoover’s presidential retreat and it met his three conditions: less than 100 miles from the White House, high enough to discourage mosquitoes, and good trout fishing. There’s only three cabins left standing and two chimneys. They had great photos and descriptions of how it used to look in the old days. One of the things I’ve loved about these woods are the animals. There were so many deer, turkey and grouse and I even saw more bears. After hiking to Lewis Falls a couple hiking down told me there was a couple of bears up the trail. There was a mama bear laying down napping and she had two cubs draped over her and another two were playing around before they settled down to sleep. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. It was like a Wild America episode.


I’ve decided I actually like the North Carolina section of the Parkway the best out of the last 570 miles. It just felt wilder and had more history to it. Through Virginia it mostly passed through people’s backyards and the overlooks were of cities. One interesting thing I did learn at Shenandoah National Park was about segregation. I’ve been to about 12 National Parks this trip and I have never seen this issue addressed before. Virginia was solidly segregated in the 1930’s and when they established Shenandoah as the first national park in VA, it was just assumed to be segregated. They even had an old sign that said “Negro Only Picnic Area”. By the 1950’s it was fully desegregated. My reasoning for this was that the big Western parks (Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, etc.) were designed to be reached by rail travel and then you had to stay at the various lodges in the park therefore only very rich people could afford the luxury of seeing these places. Shenandoah, being close to major metropolitan areas, was more accessible as a park to all levels of people.

Well now I can say I’ve driven the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. There were 2 sections of the Parkway closed though so I will have to come back and finish those off. It would be amazing to come back in the fall and see everything with the leaves changed.