It's been a while since my last post, been busy traveling. I got to say i can hardly remember all the details from this trip @ Shenandoah National Park but i'll try my best.
we started from Front royal which is the north entrance and exited at Thornton Gap Entrance Station(2nd entrance from the north to spend the night @ Luray a town just right outside of the park where we also got gas.
after checking out from Days Inn @ Luray early in the morning after breakfast we drove from Luray back in to the Skyline Drive through Thornton Gap Entrance station and continue to drove down south towards Rockfish Gap Entrance Station(which is the south entrance)
lets get started
weather is abit chilly and clowdy in the morning
We headed to Skyland and got to know there was a ranger's program at a nearby trail(Hawksbill)
so we went
just on time. Ranger (of course i forgot her name) was explaining about the geology of Shenandoah national park
into the wood
fungus (chinese we called in woodear) grow on rocks. Ranger told us that they filter the air but however they only grown in none poluted area and the native people eat them(it soo good stir fry)
more explaining of the geology of the area. i won't say too much you'll have to come experience it yourself( well also i cant remember the details...hehe)
deeper we go....we even met a true Appalachian Trail hikers along the trail
i really admire people who would put down everything and just hike for months enjoying oneself's company and also the company of other hikers. This reminds me of the movie Wild
another type of fungus, these are pretty
the ranger program took about an hour long, we did enjoyed it
after some relaxing walk with the ranger time for lunch at Skyland, the Pollock Room
food was excellent i would say for a national park standard. I ordered a gourmet hamburger with extra egg and bacon together with sweet potato fries....was sooo yummy. However Boon made a sacrifice by ordering a cheaper dish to keep our budget low, a chicken pot pie....which was just so so. Well i can't finished my big meal anyway we shared and we licked everything clean
Best meal i had in a National Park to date :)
continue our drive
time to walk off our heavy lunch. we choose a short 1.4miles hike to see the falls
the trail was easy
after the hike we went to Big Meadows, Byrd Visitor Center for toilet break
Plan to Hike Milam Gap Trail but we only walk about a mile before we turn back. It's quite a dense trail with trees and it's a very relaxing trail which flat path no up down hill, but we were quite alone as another group of family which was infront of us turn back after they hear some noise and got scared. we were lucky to see a big deer on our way back
we then went to a short trail( can't remember the name) for a 1 mile loop trail
it was getting dark anyway....our last trail before we have to drive to our hotel in Staunton
i bet the view it even better in fall ( we are a little bit too early) but we still see the original blue mountain range which amazing too
i wonder if the bear eats these berries? guess not... i don't see any bear poop
There are many many trails in Shenandoah National Park and we only pick a few for our 2 days here.
Best to do some research on the trails before hand as this park have 4 entrances and it stretch 105miles from the north - south entrance. Overall i think it's a good national park if one is into hiking and the views are gorgeous. Definitely a nice place to visit on the way from NY to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
then we spend the night @ Staunton( a town not too far from the south entrance of Shenandoah national park) before continuing our journey to Great Smoky Mountain
~ to be continue ~
