10/23-24 Shenandoah National Park
Back in October Alexis and I set out on a road trip down to a music festival in Florida. Along the way we decided to check out Shenandoah National Park and do some camping and hiking. Shenandoah National Park is along the Appalachian Trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a unique National Park as it is a very long and narrow park that centers around a scenic drive with many overlooks, campgrounds, and hiking trails along the way. We left Sunday October 23 in the morning and took the 8 hour drive from Boston to the top of Skyline Drive. For the first day our plan was to drive the first hour and a half on Skyline drive enjoying many of the scenic overlooks, and setting up camp at Big Meadows campground just after sunset. Since we knew we would spend most of the day driving we planned all hiking trails from that point in the park on.
We made it to Shenandoah National Park around 3:00pm and entered at the Front Royal (North) Entrance Station on Skyline Drive. Once in the park we stopped at the first overlook Signal Knob Overlook at 2085ft.
We proceeded along Skyline drive stopping at overlooks periodically along the way that we were interested in or had seen recommendations for. Next we stopped at Compton Gap at 2415ft, then Hogwallow Flats Overlook at 2665ft, then Range View Overlook at 2810ft. Range View was one of my favorite stops and I would not miss this one! The rolling mountains to be seen from this view are gorgeous.
We continue on to Hogback Overlook at 3384 ft and next we stopped at Elkwallow for a bathroom break. At this point we were running a little late for having stopped so often and skipped the next few stops to make sure we got closer to our campground for sunset. Lastly, we stopped at Jewell Hollow Overlook around 6pm, made it to Timber Hollow Overlook for the beginning of sunset and Spitler Knoll Overlook for the end of sunset.
We camped in Big Meadows campground and got set up around 7-7:30pm. We immediately started a fire and cooked for ourselves. We didn't stay up too late, that high up in elevation, around 3,500 ft here, it was cold and windy at night. The first night we had a hard time sleeping with the strong wind and our tent not tied down well enough. Sometime during the night our neighbors had given up on the campsite and left early. In the morning we discovered some early visitors.
We took the morning to pack up our things and eat some breakfast. Then we went by the Byrd Visitor Center so I could stamp my National Parks passport, checked out of the campground, and went across the street to the Dark Hallow Falls Parking area. From here we combined the Rose River Loop Trail with the Dark Hallow Falls trail for a 5.4 mile hike. Dark Hallow Falls trail is a very steep trail while Rose River Loop is moderate. I should mention all of the hikes I had chosen for this trip had waterfalls on them, I'm a bit of a waterfall fanatic and there were many trails to chose from with waterfalls. Also a note as a photographer I carried my heavy tripod for this trail and had no ND filter, I have since upgraded to a light weight tripod for this kind of work and highly recommend both items!
The first cascade, a bit off the beaten path, along this little river drew my attention, I spent a lot of time here getting familiar with taking photos of the cascading water and playing with my angle and timing.
The text cascade gave had a better opportunity for a successful composition. With the path behind it invisible but creating negative space and less clutter in the image, I had the ability to play with focus and scale - showing the strength and height of the trees to the delicate fall of water.
As we approached the first water fall, Dark Hallow Falls which falls about 70 feet, we saw this little caterpillar on the sign for the falls. I would caution hikers not to just touch any furry caterpillar you see as some are actually poisonous.
At the point in the trail where you begin on Rose River Loop Trail you cross a bridge on your right and follow the with the river on your left. Along the way there are many small cascades, I made the hike longer by my constant stops, I tried to get very good at taking photos quickly and left my camera attached to the tripod.
After a while the hike moves away from the little river and more into the wooded trail. Once you reach Rose River Falls the trail afterwards completely departs from the little river.
Along the way we came upon a cemetery a bit off trail, the sign caught our curiosity and we took a short detour to the cemetery. To our surprise some of the tombstones are more recent and it appears the Cave family still has use of the location.
Once back at Dark Hallow Falls we found someone kind enough to take a photo of us and headed back up hill towards our car.
We got a surprise visitor along the way!
This little baby black bear decided to cross the river and our path right in front of us, luckily it's mother was not around and we continue back to our car afterwards.
After our hike we drove to our next campground making a few overlook stops along the way. We stopped at an on that's name isn't marked on my map, The Point Overlook, and Hensley Hollow Overlook.
We spent the afternoon hanging out and eating at the Loft Mountain campground. We were then in for another cold and windy night so we went be bed very early. I'll cover our last day in Shenandoah in another blog post.
I may go back and re-edit some of these images but it's been so long since I took them I just wanted to post!
