Shenandoah Spring Break

RogersDA

Left on Sunday last week for Shenandoah National Park. It was spring break time for our daughter's school, so we decided to get away from everything.

We arrived at Skyland Lodge, one of two main lodges in the entire park. It was late in the day, so we didn't do much. The lodge has a very small play area - so off Megan went to burn off some energy and collect some pinecones.




On Monday we decided to hike up to Stony Man Mountain and then over to Little Stony Man Cliffs. It's an easy hike right from the lodge. It was nice, but a bit cool up at 3,500 feet.

We got to the top of Stony Man. It was quite nice. Nobody else was there and it was very, very quite. The view of our lodge can be seen from the top.

I found this cutie digging in the leaves for bugs.
This was a great pattern of lines on this dead tree.

On Tuesday the rain and the fog came in. The fog was very, very thick sometimes. It made it extremely difficult to drive.
Here you can seen the fog rolling in from our lodge balcony.

We decided to go geocaching and then see Dark Hollow Falls. You can tell the fog was present.
There was some spring happening, too


On Wednesday the rain and fog were still present. The fog was even thicker. We did the Pinnacles trail - short - but quite pleasant in the fog and slight drizzle that we had.


At Skyland Lodge a doe lives nearby that has a fawn every other year. The people there have named her Dolly. She is half albino. We saw her a lot this visit.


Wednesday night the snow came. We got just over an inch of the white stuff. Here's a Tueday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon comparison.

We decided to stay over an extra day since Thursday was supposed to be nice. It was and we enjoyed it. We wound up going up to Hawksbill mountain, which is the highest point in the park at 4,050 feet.

Heading out for breakfast.

The hike up to Hawksbill was pleasant. There was life, too.

On the last day we saw more wildlife.

Phyxius

Nice series! It looks like you and your family had a great trip! It's been too long since I've spent time at Shenandoah. I don't know that I'll get there this spring but perhaps a weekend of summer hiking or sometime in the fall. Thanks for posting these, my favorites have to be the bird, lines in the tree, and the first and second waterfalls.

PS, d'you know that they have half albino deer at BGE - Calvert Cliffs? I just figured it was too much nuclear waste.

RogersDA

Phyxius wrote:

Nice series! It looks like you and your family had a great trip! It's been too long since I've spent time at Shenandoah. I don't know that I'll get there this spring but perhaps a weekend of summer hiking or sometime in the fall. Thanks for posting these, my favorites have to be the bird, lines in the tree, and the first and second waterfalls.

PS, d'you know that they have half albino deer at BGE - Calvert Cliffs? I just figured it was too much nuclear waste.

Hey Christina, Thanks for looking. It was a great trip - and it was neat to have all four seasons basically in one week.

You need to go!!!! You are so close!

Seriously - you've seen albino deer there? Maybe they are the Feds in disguise protecting the reactor?

Tango

cool, trip.


i really think the dead tree shots are incredible... and all the mist was wild.

lovely family, but i think you forgot to use your on-camera timer...

Travis

Excellent pj series David! You have a wonderful looking family and it appears that they were all having the time of their lives. Too many shots in here to name as favorites but some of the standouts include the bird, foggy waterfall, and the b/w ridgeline.