Weekend escape

[bironic]

Spent a lovely long weekend out in Shenandoah National Park with my mom, who is now well enough to do things like hike 1 mile up a terrifying Appalachian mountain peak for a 360-degree view, thanks so much for the total lack of warning about the sheer drops and rock climbs, Mr. Park Ranger. We had a good time other than the accidental terror: took a couple of hikes through meadows and along wooded streams, drove the 100-mile park from top to bottom, sampled blackberry festival treats (BBQ sauce, salad dressing, ice cream, breakfast syrup), heard a mediocre but enthusiastic dulcimer player, saw a clogging troupe performance and played some Scrabble in the exhausted evenings.

Wildlife sightings included:

• 22 deer
• 1 coyote
• 1 groundhog or possibly woodchuck
• 1 bright blue flash of reptile of indeterminate origin
• 1 barred owl
• 1 (heard) woodpecker
• 2 curled-up maybe-centipedes
• 6 chipmunks
• Many butterflies, including monarchs
• Many ravens and hawks
• 4 baby chickadees in a nest
• 1 bluebird and 1 yellow bird (sorry, not a bird expert)
• 2 dead beavers, 1 dead raccoon and 1 dead skunk (road outside park)
• 1 Chihuahua with a motorcycle helmet and goggles
• Countless gnats, bees, ants, flies and spiders and 1 green stick bug
• 0 bears (unless you count the 50+ stuffed, ceramic, photographed and refrigerator magnetized versions in the gift shops and the life-sized doll in one lodge)

A lot of people visit the park for spring wildflowers or fall foliage, but it's not too shabby in summer, either.













The "rock scramble," a.k.a. summit hike of doom, which basically went straight up.





And up.





And then straight down. See the bright blue markings on the rock at lower right and center? That's the path.





Then there were some deer.









And a sunset.





And a much less mountainous hike the next morning.













Bad to the bone.





And finished off with lunch in Charlottesville's pedestrianized historic district.






All in all, a good weekend. You?

Comments

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Sending you a PM.

Also, DEER! *g*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

They were not teal deer. Fortunately or unfortunately? Anyway, my mom, who hunts for deer and turkeys in the fall, was enthralled by how non-startle-y the park's deer were. Just calmly grazing, glancing over at the hikers and cars and continuing to go about their business.

[synn.livejournal.com]

awesome, can we go when I'm up there?

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Great pictures! Shenandoah National Park is beautiful. I wish I had had time to make more trips to it when I was living in Charlottesville. Unfortunately, grad school tended to eat up all of my time.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

great piccies, and how cool that you saw so many animals!!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

No! One-time visit only!

:D

Of course. We could NOT do the hike of doom, but instead try the hike to the 87-foot waterfall that sounded great but we were too tired to attempt. And other things.

I wonder how similar the Smokey Mountains are to this park.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I don't think I knew you were down at UVA for your grad work. Neat. Sadly we didn't explore the uni at all, but the pictures looked lovely.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I was quite surprised and pleased to have seen so many, too, especially considering that my day-to-day wildlife experience consists of squirrels and pigeons with the occasional roadkill raccoon. And brown birds. So. Apparently the park really is full of bears, but they don't come close to the roads much and we didn't spot any on our hikes. I guess that's a good thing, but it would have been neat.

[synn.livejournal.com]

Grandfather mountain (higher than chimney rock) has what looks like a similar view -- you can see For.ev.er. and it's all rolling hills/mountains covered in trees. However, I didn't actually get to hike when we went there, so i have no idea if you'd get to see as much wildlife. I never seem to actually see animals (besides birds/squir.) when hiking.

oh, waterfall sounds good.

[l-eremita.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is one gorgeous park. Reminded me of my trip to Yellowstone when I was little. Amazing!

Glad to hear that your mom is enjoying herself again -- you both deserve a holiday!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ♥ And very glad we didn't choose this weekend - instead of 80 degrees it's 100 today and 103 tomorrow, plus heat index, ick ick ick.

Yellowstone was far more gorgeous than Shenandoah, but there were parts that looked a bit the same - rocky mountainsides and lush pines with periodic scoured patches where there'd been fires.